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Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2007  with  funding  from 

Microsoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/bookofredyellowbOOkelliala 


■ 


weBockcf 


FRANCIS  CKEUXr 


Witt  Reply  to  Jotn  Lini 


WOOMD  «DIT»0>«,    OO.OOO  COHS8 


/ 


THE  BOOK  OF 
RED  AND  YELLOW 

BEING  A  STORY 
OF  BLOOD  AND  A 
YELLOW  STREAK 


By 

FRANCIS  CLEMENT  KELLEY 


CHICAGO 

The  Catholic  Church  Extension  Society 
of  the  United  States  of  America 

1915 


Copyright,  1915. 

by 

FRANCIS  C.  KELLEY 

Chicago 


*ress  of 

The  Henry  0.  Shepard  Co. 

63  a  Sherman  Street 

Chicago 


Stack 
Amm 

IS  3*f 


»   3R 
The  Book  of  Red  and  Yellow 

READERS  of  this  book  who  have  been  following  European  war 
news  will  understand  the  reference  to  colors  in  the  title.  A  friend 
suggested  that  I  could  appropriately  call  it  "  The  Red  Book," 
because  it  is  a  tale  of  blood.  Another  urged  that  "  The  Yellow  Book  " 
might  be  a  better  title,  since  it  shows  the  yellow  streak  in  human  nature. 
Both  suggestions  appealed  to  me;  but  the  using  of  both  titles  together 
seems  better  still.  This  book  tells  a  tale  of  blood  and  shows  the  yellow 
streak  in  some  human  beings.  The  trail  of  the  coward  is  over  the  per- 
petrators of  the  outrages  which  here  are  told.  No  one  but  a  coward 
could  take  advantage  of  weakness  and  murder  innocence.  "  The  Book 
of  Red  and  Yellow  "  expresses  exactly  what  I  want  to  express. 

A  few  months  ago  strange  rumors  of  outrages  committed  by  the 
Constitutionalists  in  Mexico  began  to  appear  in  American  papers.  The 
first  inclination  of  practically  all  who  read  the  items  was  to  doubt ; 
and  the  second  inclination  to  shrug  the  shoulders  and  say :  "  Well,  it's 
war."  Even  in  Mexico  itself,  when  the  news  of  the  horrors  at  Durango 
was  received,  Mexicans  themselves  charitably  said  to  one  another: 
"  These  things  are  the  work  only  of  irresponsible  leaders  and  in  one 
place.  They  do  not  imply  that  the  Revolutionists  have  any  such  program 
in  mind.  Those  who  have  done  these  fearful  things  will,  in  due  time, 
be  punished."    But  we  were  all  wrong. 

When  Saltillo  fell,  the  outrages  were  repeated.  At  Zacatecas  they 
not  only  were  repeated,  but  new  infamies  were  added.  At  other  cities, 
Zacatecas  was  outdone.  Then  the  horrors  were  visited  on  every  city  and 
state  taken  by  the  Constitutionalist  forces. 

Some  refugees  from  Mexico  at  last  began  to  cross  the  American  line. 
The  border  towns  of  Texas  rapidly  filled  up  with  them.  At  Vera  Cruz 
there  were  so  many  that  they  became  a  serious  problem  to  the  American 
authorities.  Not  only  were  officers  of  the  Federal  army,  officials  of  the 
Huerta  government  and  other  political  exiles  among  the  refugees,  but  also 
priests  who  had  never  taken  up  arms  or  interfered  in  political  matters, 
sisters  whose  lives  had  been. given  up  to  teaching  the  works  of  charity, 
brothers  who  had  spent  themselves  on  the  education  of  the  Mexican 
youth,  bishops  and  archbishops.  Over  five  hundred  of  these  religious 
refugees  came  into  the  American  lines.  Most  of  them  were  destitute. 
Practically  all  had  been  robbed  of  everything  they  possessed.     They  told 


4  THE  BOOK  OF  RED  AND  YELLOW 

of  hardships,  of  murders,  of  crimes  worse  than  murder,  and  of  sacrileges. 
It  was  the  men  who  heard  these  stories,  many  of  them  officers  of  the 
United  States  army  and  navy,  who,  shocked  and  outraged  in  their  finer 
feelings,  spread  the  awful  news,  which  now  began  to  reach  the  ears  of  the 
American  people  in  all  its  repulsiveness. 

It  seemed,  however,  as  if  a  conspiracy  of  silence  had  been  organized. 
Reputable  papers,  supposed  to  be  anxious  to  print  the  truth  and  to  give 
the  news,  did  neither.  Statesmen,  so-called,  pooh-poohed  everything. 
The  man  on  the  street  said  the  thing  was  too  horrible  for  credence.  The 
wily  politician  saw  danger ;  but  all  the  time  the  people  in  Vera  Cruz,  who 
had  hearts,  saw  red. 

At  last  a  pitiful  appeal  to  charity,  to  feed  the  hungry,  to  clothe  the 
naked,  and  to  give  asylum  to  the  homeless,  reached  The  Catholic  Church 
Extension  Society,  chiefly  through  the  efforts  of  the  Rev.  R.  H.  Tierney, 
Editor  of  America,  and  the  Rev.  H.  A.  Constantineau,  Provincial  Treas- 
urer of  the  Oblate  Fathers  in  San  Antonio.  It  was  plain  to  the  directors 
of  the  Society  that,  if  they  could  not  do  justice  to  these  suffering  exiles, 
they  could,  at  least,  be  charitable  to  them.  The  Most  Reverend  James  E. 
Ouigley,  D.D.,  Archbishop  of  Chicago,  at  once  directed  me,  as  President 
of  the  Society,  to  go  wherever  the  refugees  were,  and  use  what  funds 
were  needed  to  assist  them.  I  proceeded  at  once  to  Texas,  saw  the  situa- 
tion, relieved  the  immediate  needs  in  San  Antonio,  El  Paso,  Laredo, 
Galveston,  etc.,  and  then  started  for  Vera  Cruz.  Before  taking  the  boat 
for  that  point,  I  learned  by  cable  that,  when  the  news  of  the  impending 
evacuation  of  that  port  by  the  American  troops  was  given  out,  all  the 
refugees  who  could  go  had  left  for  Cuba.  I  went  to  Havana  instead  of 
Vera  Cruz,  and  found  as  many  of  these  refugees  in  Cuba  as  we  had  in 
the  United  States,  but  in  a  far  more  deplorable  condition.  With  the 
funds  at  my  disposal,  I  spent  what  was  needed,  and  came  back  to  report 
to  the  Board  of  Governors  of  the  Society  and  beg  that  more  assistance 
be  extended. 

While  in  Texas  I  had  the  opportunity  of  hearing  the  stories  of  the 
refugees  and  investigating  them.  Knowing  that  there  would  be  more  of 
these  stories  in  Cuba,  I  requested  the  Archbishop  of  New  Orleans,  who 
spoke  Spanish  and  who  had  been  a  bishop  in  Porto  Rico,  to  come  with  me. 
He  kindly  agreed  to  do  this;  and  His  Grace  took  especial  care  of  the 
investigations,  securing  information  which  perhaps  could  never  have  been 
secured  otherwise. 

On  my  return  lo  Chicago,  the  Society  took  further  action  and  author- 
ized me  to  pay  the  expenses  incident  to  saving  and  helping  the  remaining 


> 


THE  BOOK  OE  RED  AND   YELLOW.  5 

priests  and  sisters  at  Vera  Cruz,  should  the  Government  fail  to  act  favor- 
ably on  the  request  of  the  refugees  for  transportation  to  Galveston.  Our 
appeal  to  the  charity  of  American  Catholics  has  not  been  in  vain,  yet 
much  still  remains  to  be  done.  I  publish  this  book  in  the  hope  that  it 
will  stir  up  even  a  greater  manifestation  of  charity.  The  Board  of 
Governors  of  the  Society,  relying  on  this,  has  authorized  the  publication. 
Our  motives  are  purely  charitable  and  humanitarian.  The  Society 
declines  to  enter  into  the  discussion  of  these  things  except  from  that 
standpoint.  We  have  no  political  axe  to  grind.  We  do  not  propose 
to  attach  blame  to  any  one,  much  less  to  the  administration  now  in 
power  in  Washington.  If  mistakes  have  been  made,  good-will  may 
rectify  them  in  part.  If  the  President  and  his  advisors  have  been 
deceived,  one  can  readily  understand  that  it  was  an  easy  matter  to 
deceive  them.  They  were  not  on  the  ground.  No  one  can  read  this 
story  without  knowing  that  it  was  to  the  interests  of  some  party  or 
parties  to  lend  themselves  to  such  deception.  That  the  deception  was  a 
crime  every  reasonable  man  and  woman  will  concede ;  and  the  crime  is  all 
the  clearer  in  that  the  sufferers  have,  as  usual,  been  the  innocent.  If  there 
were  no  refugees  except  political  ones,  we  could  be  sorry  for  them;  but 
we  would  be  obliged  to  admit  that  chances  must -be  taken  in  Mexican 
politics.  The  political  refugees,  however,  formed  the  minority.  Those 
who  had  committed  no  crime,  and  who  had  not  mixed  in  political 
squabbles  of  any  kind,  had  to  suffer  the  most. 

It  will  easily  be  understood  that  I  can  not  give  the  names  of  persons 
and  places  referred  to  in  many  of  the  statements  to  follow.  After  reading 
the  statements,  and  considering  the  conditions  in  Mexico,  the  reader  will 
not  wonder  why,  in  the  majority  of  instances,  such  details  had  to  be 
left  out.  I  do  not  care  to  sign  death-warrants.  But  I  have  the  original 
documents  in  my  possession,  or  I  know  where  they  are,  and  have  con- 
sulted them.  They  may  be  examined  by  those  who  have  a  right  to  see 
them  and  whose  honesty  in  asking  for  them  is  beyond  question. 


I.    . 

Tjie  General  Conditions  of  the  Persecution. 
To  begin  I  give  a  partial  list  of  the  outrages  which  have  been  com- 
mitted in  the  name  of  "  liberty  "  and  the  Constitution,  by  the  men  who 
claim  to  be  fighting  in  Mexico  for  both.  Not  one  single  charge  is  over- 
drawn. I  give  them  as  they  were  given  to  me,  not  by  a  few  individuals, 
but  practically  by  all.    I  append  proofs  which  can  not  be  questioned. 

FIRST. 

The  Constitutionalists  in  Mexico  have  attempted  to  destroy,  and  prac- 
tically have  destroyed,  three-fourths,  if  not  more,  of  the  Catholic  Church 
in  their  country ;  which  means  that  they  have  destroyed  three-fourths  of 
all  the  organized  religious  forces  in  Mexico.  They  did  it  deliberately,  and 
as  a  result  of  a  prearranged  plan.    They  did  it  remorselessly  and  cruelly 

SECOND. 

These  same  men  drove  out  of  Mexico,  imprisoned  or  sent  into  hiding 
in  fear  of  their  lives,  practically  all  the  Catholic  bishops  in  the  Republic. 
Of  those  who  remain,  one  alone  is  exercising  his  ministry  unimpeded, 
because  he  is  in  the  territory  held  by  General  Zapata,  who  is  not  and  was 
not  at  any  time  subject  to  Carranza's  authority.  Of  the  others  still  on 
Mexican  soil,  three  to  my  certain  knowledge  are  in  hiding,  and  one  is  in 
the  penitentiary,  sentenced  to  eight  years'  imprisonment  for  no  crime 
whatever.  To  this  charge  may  be  added  that  of  driving  into  exile  priests 
and  Sisters  of  Charity,  religious  men  and  women  of  all  kinds,  some  of 
whom  are  Mexican  citizens  and  some  citizens  of  other  nations. 

THIRD. 

These  same  men  were  guilty  of  seizing  private  property,  even  property 
held  in  the  names  of  individuals,  only  because  such  property  was  used  for 
religious  purposes.  They  looted  churches,  destroyed  libraries,  scientific 
laboratories,  colleges,  schools,  museums  of  Mexican  archeology,  valuable 
manuscripts  and  residences.  They  practically  wiped  off  the  map  of 
Mexico  her  best  institutions  for  higher  education. 

FOURTH. 

They  imprisoned,  tortured  and  murdered  priests  and  teachers. 

FIFTH. 

They  committed  most  abominable  and  unspeakably  vile  outrages 
against  the  persons  and  virtue  of  young  girls,  good  women,  and  Sisters 
whose  lives  had  been  vowed  to  the  service  of  Almighty  God. 

6 


THE  BOOK  OF  RED  AND  YELLOW  7 

SIXTH. 

They  interdicted  practices  of  religion  publicly  under  the  penalty  of 
death. 

SEVENTH. 

They  usurped  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction  by  appointing  to  office,  in  what 
was  left  of  the  Church,  such  men  as  they  pleased. 

EIGHTH. 

In  order  to  carry  these  things  out  with  some  show  of  reason,  they 
published  the  vilest  lies  against  the  Church  and  her  clergy. 

NINTH. 

Proclaiming  their  desire  for  a  free  government  under  a  constitution, 
they  destroyed  absolutely  the  liberty  of  the  press,  suppressing  all  news- 
papers and  other  publications  not  controlled  and  directed  by  themselves. 

TENTH. 

In  various  other  ways  they  set  aside  the  very  Constitution  to  which 
they  proclaimed  allegiance,  and  set  it  aside  deliberately. 


Before  taking  up  the  discussion  of  these  charges,  a  word  about  the 
Revolution  itself.  Porfirio  Diaz  had  given  peace  to  Mexico,  but  had  ruled 
the  country  as  a  dictator.  The  rebellion  against  him  by  Francisco  Madero 
was  successful,  and  Madero  himself  was  legally  elected  President  of  the 
Republic.  It  is  probable  that  Madero  was  the  first  President  really 
elected  by  the  people  themselves.  If  there  were  irregularities  in  his 
election,  these  irregularities  could  not  have  changed  the  result.  Under 
Madero,  an  attempt  was  made  to  give  Mexico  a  constitutional  form  of 
government,  or  rather  to  put  the  Constitution  into  effect  for  the  first 
time.  It  was  not  an  ideal  constitution.  The  addition  to  it  of  the  Laws  of 
Reform  of  Benito  Juarez  made  it  even  less  desirable.  Neither  of  these 
were  ideal  democratic  documents,  but  they  were  the  law.  The  murder 
of  Madero  was  a  vile  act,  but  it  was  never  proven  that  Madero's  suc- 
cessor, General  Huerta,  had  been  a  party  to  that  murder.  Huerta  himself 
was  selected  to  succeed  Madero  in  accordance  with  all  the  forms  of  law. 
He  was  a  strong  man,  democratic,  and  fairly  just.  His  government  was  a 
dictatorship  like  that  of  Diaz ;  but  this  much  can  be  said  of  him :  he 
could  have  brought  peace  to  Mexico.  He  was  prevented  from  doing 
this,  however,  by  a  new  revolution  headed  by  Governor  Venustiano  Car- 
ranza.  The  new  revolution  was  fostered  by  influences  from  the  United 
States.  No  revolution  is  possible  in  Mexico  otherwise,  since  Mexico  has 
no  facilities  for  supplying  arms  and  ammunition.    All  arms  and  ammuni- 


8  THE  BOOK  OF  RED  AND   YELLOW 

tion  for  Carranza's  outbreak  were  supplied  by  American  firms,  whose 
names  are  known,  and  who  could  easily  have  been  prevented  from  supply- 
ing them.  To  end  any  revolution  in  Mexico,  it  is  only  necessary  to  forbid 
the  sending  of  arms  from  the  United  States  into  that  country.  The 
Carranza  forces  had  unlimited  supplies,  both  of  arms  and  money  with 
which  to  buy  them.  They  were  successful,  and  were  aided  to  their  suc- 
cess by  the  closing  of  the  port  of  Vera  Cruz  to  Huerta.  I  do  not  question 
the  right  of  our  Government  to  close  the  port.  Neither  do  I  criticize  the 
attitude  of  the  administration  to  Huerta.  I  merely  state  the  facts.  On 
the  face  of  things,  it  looked  as  if  the  people  were  fighting  for  constitutional 
government.  I  desire  to  show,  in  a  general  way  in  this  chapter,  how  far 
the  actions  of  the  Constitutionalists  agreed  with  their  professions. 


In  the  beginning,  the  outrages  committed  by  Carranza's  army  were 
few,  but  at  Durango  it  was  clearly  seen  that  the  first  step  of  the  revolu- 
tion was  to  be  the  utter  destruction  of  religion.  The  Constitutionalists 
found  at  Durango  a  venerable  and  holy  old  man,  who  had  long  been  the 
archbishop  of  that  diocese.  He  was  immediately  arrested  and  from  him 
was  demanded  a  ransom  of  $500,000.  Now,  the  people  of  Mexico  are  not 
rich.  The  Church  is  not  rich.  There  was  no  union  between  Church  and 
State,  and  there  had  not  been  such  a  union  for  fifty  years.  The  Con- 
stitutionalists might  as  well  have  asked  the  archbishop  for  $500,000,000 
as  for  $500,000.  He  had  not  the  money  to  give.  He  told  his  captors  so. 
They  flung  him  into  prison.  When  they  released  him,  it  was  only  to  keep 
him  in  durance  within  the  city  limits.  They  showered  indignities  upon 
his  head.  They  arrested  his  clergy,  exiled  many,  closed  churches;  in  a 
word,  they  did  all  they  could  to  stamp  out  religion  in  Durango.  Some 
good  people  got  together  a  few  thousand  dollars.  Seeing  that  they  could 
get  no  more,  the  Constitutionalists  released  the  archbishop,  but  drove 
him  out  of  the  city.  He  went  to  Morelia,  where  again  he  was  held  for 
ransom,  and  again  some  good  people  bought  his  liberty.  Then,  after  two 
months  of  this  sort  of  thing,  he  escaped  to  the  United  States.  I  saw  him, 
a  sad  old  man,  broken  in  health,  but  uncomplaining.  Had  I  depended 
upon  him  for  information,  however,  I  would  have  had  none.  He  suffered 
in  silence,  but  I  received  the  information  from  others,  even  those  who 
were  eye-witnesses  of  the  affair. 

Here  is  a  statement  by  one  of  these  eye-witnesses  to  the  taking  of  the 
city  of  Durango  by  the  Carranzista  forces.  I  dare  not  give  his  name,  for 
fear  of  the  consequences  to  himself  if  he  returns  to  Mexico : 


THE  BOOK  OF  RED  AND  YELLOW  9 

No  sooner  were  the  Constitutionalists  in  the  city,  under  the  command 
of  General  Tomas  Urbina,  than  there  was  a  tremendous  riot  among  them, 
and  the  second  general  in  command  was  killed  and  a  great  number  of 
others  perished. 

On  hearing  the  first  reports  of  the  riot,  crowds  forced  open  the  doors 
of  all  business  houses,  ransacking  and  setting  fire  afterward  to  them. 
Nine  palaces  and  many  houses  were  wiped  out.  Leading  families  who, 
previous  to  this  horrible  episode,  had  been  considered  rich,  to-day  have 
not  even  bread  to  eat,  and  many  are  without  clothing. 

The  outrages  committed  did  not  cease  at  this  point,  but  increased,  and, 
on  the  second  day,  without  court-martial,  all  the  officials  and  chiefs  taken 
during  the  battle  or  after  were  sentenced  to  death,  thus  disregarding 
entirely  the  guarantees  and  promises  not  to  execute  any  one.  Repre- 
sentatives of  the  leaders  entered  the  archbishop's  palace  and  other  private 
homes,  forcibly  carrying  with  them  those  who  had  taken  refuge  there.' 
Notwithstanding  the  entreaties  of  the  sisters,  mothers,  wives  and  children, 
they  were  conducted  as  the  vilest  criminals  to  the  dirtiest  and  unhealthiest 
prison  cells.  The  day  after  they  were  compelled  to  beg  from  door  to 
door  the  tremendous  amount  of  money  that  had  been  demanded  as  ran- 
soms. In  the  meantime  other  groups  of  armed  men  entered  and  pro- 
faned the  Church  of  the  Jesuit  Fathers ;  and  the  Carmelites  were  horribly 
insulted  and  outraged.  In  the  cathedral  where  the  remains  of  the  dead 
bishops  and  archbishops  had  been  laid  they  scattered  the  remains  with 
their  swords.  Not  satisfied  with  this,  they  then  approached  the  arch- 
bishop's palace,  addressing  the  archbishop  in  very  unbecoming  language 
and  demanded  $500,000  as  a  "  loan,"  which  amount  he  was  unable  to  pay, 
and  he  was  thereupon  taken  to  jail,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  he  was 
in  an  almost  dying  condition.  Not  even  a  chair  or  bed  was  given  him, 
and  he  was  left  on  the  floor  of  the  condemned  cell. 

These  acts  and  others  filled  all  the  city  with  consternation,  which 
increased  by  the  hearing  of  other  outrages  which  have  been  committed 
against  families,  and  more  especially  so  when  priests  were  seen  arrested 
for  the  mere  fact  of  their  profession  and  because  they  were  unable  to  pay 
the  money  demanded  of  them. 

What  was  done  at  Durango  was  the  rule  whenever  the  rebels  con- 
quered a  new  territory,  and,  when  the  payment  of  ransom  was  not 
sufficient,  exile  followed.  Very  early  also  in  the  conquests  of  the 
Constitutionalists  came  the  same  outrages  in  Matamoros.  In  both  Dur- 
ango and  Matamoros  the  churches  were  pillaged,  the  desecrating  of  the 
graves  of  the  dead  bishops  was  done  with  the  object  of  discovering  if 
there  might  be  some  valuable  objects  buried  with  them.  Swords  were 
run  through  the  disinterred  bodies.  That  all  this  was  premeditated  and 
part  of  a  plan,  Carranza  and  the  leaders  themselves  declared.  In  dis- 
courses published  in  their  newspapers,  they  claimed  that  they  intended 
to  destroy  militarism/capital  and  the  clergy.  It  was  in  carrying  out  this 
plan  that  the  cities  were  given  to  pillage,  estates  seized  and  religion 
trampled  upon.     Tt  was  a  crime  to  have  been  a  soldier  in  the  Federal 


10  THE  BOOK  OF  RED  AND  YELLOW 

army,  to  be  a  rich  man,  no  matter  how  honestly  the  riches  might  have 
been  gained,  or  to  be  a  priest,  teacher  or  Sister,  no  matter  how  much 
charity  or  good  work  had  been  done  as  such.  There  was  no  process  of 
law.  The  Cathedral  Chapters  of  Durango,  Monterey,  Zacatecas,  Guada- 
lajara, Puebla,  etc.,  they  dissolved  by  Constitutionalist  authority. 


The  following  statement,  sworn  to  by  the  writers  before  a  notary, 
gives  an  idea  of  the  way  the  persecution  was  carried  on  in  the  north. 

From  its  very  beginning  the  Constitutionalist  Revolutionary  Party 
of  Mexico  showed  itself  to  be  anti-religious,  as  is  proven  by  the  injustices 
committed  in  the  State  of  Sonora,  Sinaloa  and  Chihuahua  against  priests 
and  church  property.  But  not  in  the  degree  that  it  afterward  attained. 
Don  Venustiano  Carranza,  who  never  before  had  shown  signs  of  "  clero- 
phobia,"  allowed  himself,  according  to  our  belief,  to  be  influenced  by 
certain  members  of  what  is  known  in  Mexico  as  the  "  Reform  Party," 
the  same  that  tried  to  force  Francisco  I.  Madero  into  a  religious  persecu- 
tion. From  then  on,  the  irreligious  spirit  of  the  Constitutionalists'  revolu- 
tion appeared  unmasked. 

We  shall  say  nothing  of  what  preceded  the  taking  of  Monterey  from 
lack  of  concrete  data  sufficiently  authenticated. 

Monterey. —  They  took  Monterey,  the  capital  of  the  State  of  Nuevo 
Leon,  on  April  24,  1914.  According  to  the  general  custom,  the  Revolu- 
tionary officials  left  the  churches  undisturbed,  but  on  the  27th  of  the 
same  month  they  ordered  all  churches  closed,  and  took  possession  of  the 
keys.  On  May  12  the  priests  were  cited  to  appear.  Accordingly  the- 
Vicar-General,  sixteen  foreign  and  several  Mexican  priests  went  to  the 
place  appointed,  where  a  "  loan  "  of  $500,000  was  demanded  of  them.  As 
they  declared  themselves  unable  to  give  such  an  immense  sum,  they  were 
put  in  prison.  .  By  the  intervention  of  their  respective  consuls,  the  for- 
eigners were  set  free,  but  at  the  same  time  declared  banished  from  Mex- 
ican soil.  The  Vicar-General  and  the  other  Mexican  priests  remained 
in  jail. 

The  archbishop's  palace  was  occupied  by  the  rebels,  who  destroyed  a 
magnificent  library  and  possessed  themselves  of  the  archives  of  the  arch- 
diocese. The  printing-press  of  the  archbishopric  was  taken  over  for  the 
publication  of  the  impious  newspaper,  El.  Bonete,  in  the  pages  of  which 
were  published,  in  an  attempt  to  dishonor  the  priesthood,  the  documents 
found  in  the  secret  archives.  (Records  of  diocesan  disciplinary  cases. 
—Ed.) 

On  June  7  they  publicly  burned  the  confessionals  and  other  church 
furniture.  They  also  publicly  profaned  the  statues  of  the  saints  in  the 
streets,  casting  lots  on  them  and  shooting  at  those  which  by  lot  were 
determined  as  "  Huertistas."  There  were,  moreover,  numerous  spolia- 
tions, robberies  and  other  excesses  committed  in  the  churches. 

As  a  climax  to  these  infamous  proceedings,  the  Governor  of  the  State 
issued  a  decree,  under  date  of  July  14,  in  which,  after  an  introduction 
very  offensive  to  the  clergy,  which  he  designated  as  "  corrupt  and  cor- 
rupting," religious  liberty  was  practically  abolished. 


THE  BOOK  OF  RED  AND   YELLOW  11 

In  several  towns  of  this  State  were  committed  acts  of  sacrilegious  sav- 
agery. In  Tanquecillos,  for  example,  they  profaned  the  sacred  vestments, 
using  them  for  a  dance.  At  Margaritas,  the  Ciborium  of  the  Tabernacle 
was  used  in  drinking  "  mescal." .  At  Cerralbo  they  took  the  statues  of  the 
saints,  not  excepting  that  of  the  national  devotion,  Our  Lady  of  Guada- 
lupe, and  cast  them  into  a  well,  mutilating  that  of  Our  Lady  of  Lourdes 
to  make  it  small  enough  to  be  forced  in,  at  the  same  time  issuing  a  decree 
in  which  it  was  declared  that  anyone  caught  trying  to  rescue  the  statues 
would  be  summarily  executed.  In  Las  Aldamas  the  churches  were  con- 
verted into  barracks.  A  certain  Father  Regalado  was  obliged  to  walk  a 
distance  of  about  eighty  miles,  from  Linares  to  Victoria.  Another  priest, 
Father  Martin,  parish  priest  of  Galeana,  was  robbed  of  all  he  had,  and  it 
was  only  by  fleeing  to  the  mountains  that  he  freed  himself  from  still 
worse  treatment. 

Tepic. —  The  city  of  Tepic,  capital  of  the  territory  by  that  name,  was 
captured  in  the  middle  of  May.  They  imprisoned  the  bishop,  Rt.  Rev. 
Andres  Segura,  and  Very  Rev.  Ramon  Vilalto,  Superior  of  the  Mission- 
ary Sons  of  the  Immaculate  Heart  of  Mary,  in  the  penitentiary  about  the 
17th  of  the  same  month,  sentencing  them  to  eight  years'  imprisonment. 
Other  priests  were  left  at  liberty,  although  forbidden  to  leave  the  city. 
That,  at  least,  was  the  belief  at  first,  but  now  we  know  that  all  the  Mis- 
sionary Fathers  of  the  Heart  of  Mary  residing  there  are  actually  in 
prison. 

Saltillo. —  This  city,  capital  of  Coahuila,  fell  into  the  hands  of  the 
Revolutionists  in  the  beginning  of  June,  if  we  are  not  mistaken.  It  is 
impossible  to  describe  what  the  priests  suffered  there'.  Eight  of  them 
(four  Jesuits,  three  Eudists  and  a  Benedictine)  were  shut  up  in  a  dark 
room,  and  kept  there  eight  days.  Then,  at  midnight  the  door  was  opened, 
and  they  were  told  they  were  condemned  to  death.  One  by  one  they 
were  taken  out,  and  with  each  of  them  a  mock  execution  was  carried 
out  in  the  minutest  details  —  the  line  of  sharpshooters,  the  signal  to  fire, 
the  discharge  and  even  the  falling  of  the  body,  which  was  produced  by  a 
push  from  behind.  Afterward  they  were  taken  in  a  stock  car  to  Torreon, 
where  they  were  shamefully  paraded  through  the  streets  ;  and  from  there 
they  were  taken  through  Cuidad  Juarez  to  the  border.  We  have  been  told 
that  other  priests  were  forced  to  suffer  the  torment  of  the  gallows,  being 
tied  by  the  neck  and  lifted  into  the  air.  One  of  them  was  raised  thus 
three  times,  until  he  lost  consciousness. 

Zacatecas. —  This  is  the  capital  of  the  state  of  the  same  name,  and 
was  taken  June  3  at  sundown.  Immediately  after  they  captured  Rev. 
Inocencio  Lopez  Velarde,  who  was  a  Fiscal  Promoter,  Professor  of  the 
Seminary  and  Chaplain  of  the  Theresian  Sisters,  and  after  robbing  him, 
took  him  to  the  outskirts  of  the  city  and  killed  him,  afterward  maltreating 
his  dead  body,  which  was  found  the  next  day,  the  head  and  chest  riddled 
with  bullets/  On  the  4th,  early  in  the  morning,  they  went  to  the  College 
of  the  Christian  Brothers,  and  took  away  its  chaplain,  Father  Pascual 
Vega,  and  Brothers  Adrian  and  Adolph,  president  and  vice-president, 
respectively.  All  three  were  conducted  to  Bufa  Hill  and  shot.  No  one 
in  the  city  knew  where  they  were  till  on  the  third  day  their  bodies  were 
found  half-buried.    The  other  brothers  were  sent  to  prison  and  subjected  to 


12  THE  BOOK  OF  RED  AND  YELLOW 

a  thousand  indignities.  On  the  25th  all  the  priests  of  the  cities  were  cited 
to  appear.  Twenty-three  priests,  headed  by  the  Vicar-General,  presented 
themselves.  They  were  menaced  with  death  if  they  would  not  give  on  the 
same  day  before  6  p.m.  a  "  loan  "  of  $1,000,000,  and  were  incarcerated 
in  a  miserable  dungeon.  There  they  were  kept  three  days  without  food 
or  drink  and  in  danger  of  asphyxiation.  In  the  afternoon  of  that  day  the 
"loan"  was  demanded,  they  took  out  the  Vicar-General  and  another  priest, 
pretending  that  they  were  to  be  shot,  and  at  the  same  time  threatening 
the  others  with  a  like  punishment  if  they  would  not  quickly  give  the  sum 
demanded.  Knowing  very  well  that  it  was  impossible  for  them  to  collect 
such  a  fabulous  amount,  especially  if  they  kept  them  locked  up,  the 
Revolutionists  allowed  three  of  them  to  go  out,  and  they  were  able  to 
get  together  $14,000.  The  rebels  took  this  sum,  but  ordered  them  to 
continue  their  begging  among  the  faithful  until  they  collected  at  least 
$100,000.  They  did  so,  but  they  were  told  that  $4,000  was  missing,  and 
obliged  them  to  go  out  again  and  collect  that  sum,  but  they  were  not  even 
then  set  at  liberty.  They  were  kept  in  jail  until  the  night  of  July  3, 
when  they  were  taken  to  the  depot  and  put  in  a  dirty  box-car  and  sent  to 
Torreon  and  Cuidad  Juarez,  guarded  by  a  convoy  of  drunken  soldiers, 
who  were  constantly  menacing  them  with  their  guns.  There  they  were 
despoiled  of  all  they  had  and  were  obliged  to  take  refuge  in  the  United 
States.    The  Episcopal  palace  was  changed  into  a  barracks. 

A  brutal  deed  was  perpetrated  at  Villa  de  Guadalupe.  Father 
Valeriano  Medina,  a  charitable  priest,  was  taking  care  of  the  wounded  in 
the  parish  school,  which  he  had  converted  into  a  hospital.  The  Revolu- 
tionists entered  the  house  on  horseback,  killing  some  of  the  patients  with 
their  horse's  hoofs,  and  taking  the  others  out  to  be  shot.  The  Father, 
who  was  the  especial  object  of  these  outlaws'  search,  escaped.  The  parish 
priest  of  Cabra,  Rev.  Jesus  Alba,  was  taken  to  the  cemetery  and  killed. 

Aguascalientes. —  The  capital  of  the  state  of  that  name,  was  taken 
shortly  after  Zacatecas,  and  all  the  priests  exiled.  On  the  4th  of  August, 
the  confessionals  and  some  statues  of  saints  were  publicly  burned. 
Governor  Fuentes  threatened  with  death  any  priest  who  would  attempt 
to  exercise  his  ministry. 

San  Luis  Potosi. —  July  17  they  peacefully  entered  San  Luis  Potosi, 
capital  of  the  state  of  that  name.  Nevertheless,  this  was  one  of  the  cities 
in  which  the  clergy  had  to  suffer  most.  On  the  19th,  they  asked  the  Vicar- 
General  for  the  bishop's  carriage,  and  Col.  Alberto  de  Avila  struck  him 
and  put  him  in  prison.  Thanks  to  the  German  consul,  he  was  liberated  in 
two  hours. 

On  the  20th  an  order  was  published  forbidding  the  celebration  of 
Mass  on  week  days  under  penalty  of  $1,000  fine  for  the  first  offense, 
$2,000  for  the  second,  $3,000  for  the  third,  and  either  exile  or  death  for 
the  fourth.  Confession,  outside  the  danger  of  death,  was  prohibited,  and 
even  then  only  with  a  government  official  present  to  hear.  Ringing  of  the 
bells  was  to  be  confined  to  secular  uses. 

On  July  25  a  proclamation  of  exile  for  all  priests  was  published, 
ordering  them  to  be  at  the  depot  at  five  o'clock  next  morning.  They 
complied,  but  had  to  wait  until  six  in  the  evening,  when  the  Carranzistas 
appeared.     They  allowed  ten  priests  to  remain  for  services  in  the  citv. 


THE  BOOK  OF  RED  AND  YELLOW  13 

and  one  other  because  he  was  sick.  The  other  twenty-seven  were  put 
into  a  stock  car  and  thus  taken  to  Charcas.  Here  they  were  taken  out, 
made  to  look  into  some  wells,  and  threatened  with  being  thrown  into  them. 
Then  they  took  them  to  a  hacienda  and  enclosed  them  in  a  sacristy,  the 
walls  of  which  were  bespattered  with  human  blood.  After  three  days 
they  relieved  them  of  all  they  had.  They  detained  the  bishop's  secretary, 
the  first  assistant  of  Del  Sagrario  parish,  and  a  Franciscan  monk.  The 
others  were  freed  on  condition  that  they  leave  the  country.  They 
arrived  at  Monterey,  via  Saltillo,  on  July  31.  Here  the  Vicar-General, 
Very  Rev.  Agustin  Jimenez  was  detained.  The  others  were  again 
arrested,  and  taken  under  a  guard  to  Nuevo  Laredo,  with  orders  to 
shoot  anyone  trying  to  escape.  Then  their  photographs  were  taken,  as  if 
they  were  criminals,  and  they  were  obliged  to  cross  the  border.  Among 
the  exiles  was  Rev..  Fr.  Espinosa,  a  venerable  Franciscan,  ninety-four 
years  of  age. 

The  magnificent  Episcopal  palace  was  sacked,  and  the  books  of  its 
library  sold  at  ridiculous  prices.  We  hear,  however,  that  an  Englishman 
claimed  the  palace  and  everything  contained  therein  as  his  own,  and  that 
it  was  turned  over  to  him. 

Oueretaro. —  This  city,  capital  of  the  state  of  that  name,  was  taken 
by  the  Carranzistas  on  the  29th  of  July.  The  same  day  Fathers  Gabriel 
Goray,  a  Carmelite,  and  Sousa,  a  Franciscan,  were  kept  in  the  De  la  Cruz 
barracks  two  days,  and  then  driven  through  the  streets  on  horseback, 
vested  in  their  religious  habits.  Then  they  liberated  the  latter  and  made 
the  former  enter  the  army.  The  churches  were  all  closed,  the  Revolu- 
tionalists  keeping  all  the  keys,  except  those  of  the  churches  San  Jose  and 
Santa  Clara,  which  were  deposited  in  the  Spanish  vice-consulate.  In 
this  vice-consulate  several  Spanish  priests  took  refuge,  and  others  hid 
themselves  in  various  disguises.  On  the  30th  or  31st  the  Catholic  high 
school  was  attacked,  and  the  Christian  Brothers  and  the  French  vice- 
consul  taken  out  by  armed  force.  On  the  3d  of  August  the  Seminary  was 
changed  into  a  Constitutionalist  police  station.  On  the  8th  the  con- 
fessionals were  burned  in  Zena  Garden.  Father  Rabago  was  imprisoned 
and  Canon  Florencio  Rosas  put  in  charge  of  the  diocese  of  Queretaro. 
On  the  11th  they  attacked  the  vice-consulate,  taking  prisoners  the  priests 
hidden  there.  These  were  taken  at  bayonet  point  to  the  barracks  De  la 
Alameda,  thence  to  Griega,  afterward  back  to  the  same  barracks,  and 
finally  set  free.  On  the  27th  a  large  Catholic  manifestation  caused  great 
fear  among  the  Revolutionists.  They  exiled  all  the  Spanish  priests  on 
the  29th,  taking  them  to  San  Luis  Potosi,  where  they  were  detained  until 
September  12  and  then  sent  to  Laredo.  The  others  were  obliged  to  appear 
in  the  former  bank  of  San  Luis  in  order  to  declare  what  goods  they 
possessed,  how  they  acquired  them  and  what  were  the  possessions  of  the 
diocese. 

Gaunajuato. —  On  the  31st  of  July  almost  all  the  cities  of  this  very 
rich  state  were  captured.  In  the  capital,  on  the  1st  of  August,  "  loans  " 
were  forced,  heavier  ones  on  priests  than  others.  After  a  few  days  all 
the  priests  were  convoked  and  told  that  confession' was  absolutely  pro- 
hibited, even  to  the  dying,  and  that  any  commission  of  ladies  asking  for 
repeal  of  these  laws  would  not  be  received. 


14  THE  BOOK  OF  RED  AND  YELLOW 

Leon.— Although  they  entered  this  town  July  31,  they  were  expelled 
the  next  day  hy  Pascual  Orozco ;  but  regained  it  on  August  2.  They  im- 
posed on  the  bishop  a  "loan"  of  $500,000,  and,  as  his  representatives  could 
not  collect  more  than  $6,000  they  took  possession  of  the  stipends  and 
goods  of  the  clergy.  The  canons  were  arrested  and  imprisoned  in  their 
own  houses.  Foreign  priests  were  expelled.  They  prohibited  the  ringing 
of  church  bells  and  drove  out  the  nuns  from  the  convents. 

Irapuato. —  Here  the  confessionals  were  burned  August  3  ;  confes- 
sion was  prohibited  under  pain  of  death,  and  nuns  exiled.  They  tried  to 
kill  the  parish  priest  and  Father  Chavez. 

Si  lao.— They  arrested  all  the  priests,  and,  on  giving  them  their  free- 
dom, they  kept  as  hostages  the  parish  priest  and  another  Father  whom 
they  robbed,  even  of  the  dinner  and  supper  their  families  brought  them. 

Celaya. —  The  Missionary  Sons  of  the  Heart  of  Mary  hid  themselves 
in  near-by  farms.  The  Archbishop  of  Michoacan,  Most  Rev.  Leopoldo 
Ruiz,  who  happened  to  be  there,  hid  himself  in  the  home  of  a  Catholic 
gentleman.  The  other  priests  hid  in  different  houses  in  the  city.  One 
of  the  fugitives  betrayed  the  others,  telling  where  they  were  concealed,  and 
all  were  captured.  The  Archbishop,  Father  Penaflor,  a  Franciscan,  and 
Father  Lara,  a  parish  priest,  were  especially  sought  after.    Thanks  to  the 

courage  of  Mr.  C ,  who  was  on  the  point  of  being  shot  three  or 

four  times  for  not  telling  where  His  Grace  was  concealed,  he  was  able 
to  save  himself  by  flight  to  a  hacienda.  Some  others  were  also  able  to 
remain  in  hiding.  Those  who  were  imprisoned,  in  number  about  twenty- 
five,  as  they  were  unable  to  pay  the  $60,000  demanded,  were  exiled ;  being 
taken  to  Laredo  in  a  filthy  stock  car. 

Zamora. —  It  seems  that  in  this  town  the  venerable  Archbishop  of 
Durango  was  imprisoned,  and  with  all  his  priests  compelled  to  sweep  the 
streets.  He  was  taken,  guarded  and  on  foot,  to  Piedad,  and  from  there 
by  train  to  Irapuato,  August  27,  according  to  the  account  of  an  eye- 
witness. 

Toluca. —  The  Revolutionists  entered  this  city,  the  capital  of  the 
State  of  Mexico,  on  August  8.  On  the  10th  they  closed  all  the  churches, 
keeping  the  keys  themselves,  and  they  have  not  been  opened  until  the 
present  day.  They  laughed  at  a  commission  of  Catholics  who  asked  per- 
mission to  have  Mass,  saying  they  would  allow  it  if  for  each  mass  they 
paid  them  $300,000.  The  Sacraments  and  all  public  worship  were  pro- 
hibited. They  arrested  Fathers  Garduno,  Campos,  Orhalas  and  Joaquin. 
The  Passionist  Fathers,  nine  in  number,  whose  hiding-places  were  dis- 
covered, were  taken  prisoners  and  incarcerated  for  fifteen  days;  then 
permitted  to  go  to  the  Spanish  vice-consulate  on  the  express  condition 
that  they  would  leave  the  Republic  within  fifteen  days.  Because  he  would 
not  disclose  the  hiding-place  of  the  Holy  Cross  Fathers,  Brother  Mariano 
Gonzales,  of  the  Missionary  Sons  of  the  Immaculate  Heart  of  Mary,  was 
shot. 

The  Church  of  Carmen  was  plundered,  a  very  large  and  beautiful 
statue  of  the  Sacred  Heart  chopped  to  pieces,  and  the  sacred  vessels, 
jewels  and  ornaments  of  the  statues  stolen.  They  also  sacked  the  Church 
of  La  Merced  and  were  engaged  in  burning  various  things  taken  there- 
from until  eleven  at  night. 


THE  BOOK  OF  RED  AND  YELLOW  15 

In  nearly  the  whole  city  of  Toluca  there  was  no  priest  to  baptize,  for 
all  were  in  hiding. 

Finally  Father  Paredes  tried  to  make  some  arrangement,  but  was  able 
to  obtain  absolutely  nothing.  Before  this  a  decree  was  published,  which 
reached  even  the  absurdity  of  prohibiting  fasting  and  mortification,  etc. 

Mexico. —  In  the  capital  of  the  Government  religion  has  relatively 
suffered  less.  However,  Father  Paredes  was  set  up  as  Vicar-General. 
About  thirty  priests  have  been  arrested,  and  some  of  them  beaten.  For 
example,  Father  Zaragoesa.  The  House  of  Retreat  of  the  Angels  was 
changed  to  a  barracks,  and  the  confessionals  of  its  Oratory  burned  in  the 
streets.  The  Church  of  St.  Bridget  was  closed  and  the  Carranzistas  took 
possession  of  the  rectory,  etc. 

Puebla. —  In  this,  the  capital  of  the  state,  Father  Escobedo  was  placed 
as  administrator  of  the  diocese.  They  dissolved  the  Cathedral  Chapter 
and  exiled  its  members ;  the  confessionals  of  many  of  the  churches  were 
taken  away  and  stored  in  a  cellar.  The  places  in  the  cathedral  formerly 
occupied  by  the  confessionals  were  marked  with  secret  society  emblems. 
The  pulpit  of  the  cathedral  was  declared  open  to  all.  A  decree  was  pub- 
lished suppressing  confession.  A  dance  was  held  in  the  chapel  of  the 
Catholic  College  of  the  Jesuits.  By  another  decree  all  religious  were 
expelled.  They  took  possession  of  De  la  Salle  College  and  others.  They 
made  a  barracks  of  the  Episcopal  palace,  etc. 

Vera  Cruz. —  The  capital  of  this  state  being  protected  by  American 
troops,  all  has  been  peaceful  there,  but  in  some  cities  of  the  state  atrocities 
have  been  perpetrated. 

At  Tepozotlan  they  stole  the  ciborium,  dropping  the  Sacred  Hosts 
on  the  floor,  and  not  permitting  them  to  be  gathered  up  until  two  days 
later. 

At  Jalapa  all  priests  were  expelled,  being  given  twenty-four  hours  to 
leave. 

In  Cordoba  all  the  churches  were  taken  possession  of  and  a  decree  of 
expulsion  against  all  priests  was  published. 

Orizaba  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Carranzistas  August  24.  Four 
days  after  all  nuns  were  expelled.  Afterward,  by  proclamation,  all  priests 
were  banished  and  the  churches  closed;  all  except  that  of  El  Calvario, 
for  fear  of  the  people.    Mass,  however,  was  not  allowed  to  be  said  there. 

The  above  statements  give  a  very  general  idea  of  the  persecutions. 
Tn  the  chapters  to  follow  a  few  statements  more  in  detail  are  given. 


II. 

Guadalajara. 

This  statement  I  print  in  full.  To  attempt  to  compress  it  would  be  to 
destroy  its  force.  It  was  written  by  an  exile  who  suffered  the  horrors  of 
the  persecution  himself.  Were  I  to  take  the  facts  as  a  basis  for  writing 
the  story  myself  I  would,  at  the  same  time,  take  a  note  of  personal 
experience  out  of  it,  which  could  only  destroy  some  of  the  vividness  of 
the  sad  narration. 

"  After  a  weak  show  of  resistance  and  a  sham  battle  on  the  outskirts 
of  the  city,  Huerta's  troops  abandoned  the  city  of  Guadalajara  in  the 
night  between  the  7th  and  8th  of  July,  1914.  During  the  sortie  the  ineffi- 
cient General  Mier  was  killed  and  his  small  army  scattered.  At  the  same 
time  the  army  of  General  Obregon  entered  the  city  by  detachments.  They 
met  no  resistance  from  the  inhabitants,  but  were  acclaimed  by  a  number 
of  ragged  workingmen  and  some  revolutionists  of  the  city.  Up  to  this 
time  it  was  thought  that  the  Huerta  newspapers' were  libeling  his  oppo- 
nents and  that  the  Obregonistas  were  not  as  barbarous  as  the  Villistas  and 
their  kind.  The  invaders  themselves  declared  that  the  city  of  Guadalajara 
would  be  convinced  that  the  Constitutionalist  cause  was  that  of  peace  and 
justice;  and  they  ordered  the  motto  of  Juarez  to  be  engraved  over  the 
door  of  every  school :  '  Respect  for  the  rights  of  others  is  peace.'  The 
irony  of  this  motto  is  great.  Scarcely  had  the  Constitutionalists  entered  the 
city  when  they  confiscated  all  the  automobiles.  They  began  with  that  of  the 
archbishop,  which  Obregon  appropriated  for  himself.  They  took  all  the 
carriages  and  fine  horses.  The  officers  broke  into  the  houses  of  the  well- 
to-do,  whether  they  were  at  home  or  away.  They  camped  there  and 
parceled  out  among  themselves  and  their  women  and  friends  the  furniture, 
table  service,  and  even  the  clothes  of  the  women  and  children  of  the  house. 
They  searched  everywhere  for  the  officials  of  the  Huerta  government, 
for  the  principal  employees  of  that  government,  for  the  members  of  the 
Catholic  party  and  for  every  one  whom  they  considered  political  enemies. 
A  number  of  these  were  shot,  some  with  the  greatest  cruelty. 

"  General  Obregon  managed  to  restrain  individual  outrages  of  his 
soldiers,  but  the  pillage  went  on  unchecked  in  other  forms  as  violent  and 
as  criminal.  The  barracks  were  left  empty,  while  the  troops  were  pur- 
posely lodged  in  the  most  flourishing  and  best-kept  institutions  of  learning 
and  charity.    On  July  9  a  picket  of  soldiers  was  placed  at  all  the  doors  of 

16 


THE  BOOK  OF  RED  AND  YELLOW  17 

the  Jesuit  College.  This  is  the  best  in  the  city,  and  possesses  a  fine  equip- 
ment of  physical  and  chemical  apparatus  from  Europe.  The  rector  had 
just  left  the  classrooms  on  the  first  floor,  when  a  band  of  Yaqui  Indians, 
bedecked  with  feathers,  entered  and  camped  with  their  women  in  the 
clean  and  elegant  lecture-rooms.  Colonel  Calderon,  one-time  school- 
master and  afterward  an  inmate  of  San  Juan  de  Ulua  prison,  and  now 
a  shining  light  in  the  Constitutionalist  army,  although  without  any  educa- 
tion and  evidently  without  principle,  took  for  himself  the  rector's  room 
and  quartered  his  officers  and  musicians  in  the  upper  stories.  He  refused 
to  listen  to  protests.  He  made  no  effort  to  stop  the  destruction  of  scien- 
tific instruments  which  was  going  on,  nor  did  he  respect  the  French  flag 
which  hung  above  the  door  of  the  building.  Only  one  who  has  seen  it 
can  picture  a  barracks  in  Mexico.  It  is  a  mass  of  human  bodies,  filthy 
men,  women  and  children,  who  cook  their  meals,  make  their  beds,  wash 
their  clothes  and  bathe  themselves  in  view  of  all.  They  live  with  all 
their  instruments,  arms,  playthings  and  animals  heaped  around  them. 

"  As  the  spoliation  was  to  be  accomplished  by  degrees,  the  rector  was 
allowed  a  miserable  lodging  in  the  barracks,  which  he  had  to  accept, 
unless  he  wished  to  sleep  in  the  street.  For  several  days  he  was  not 
allowed  to  pass  out  the  door  of  his  own  house.  Colonel  Calderon's 
troops  are  the  most  moral,  if  there  can  be  any  morality  among  soldiers 
where  the  petty  thefts  of  the  enlisted  men  are  punished  by  death,  while 
wholesale  thefts  are  committed  with  impunity  by  the  officers.  Calderon's 
troops  are  composed  of  full-blood  Yaquis,  who  possess  a  religion  of  a  kind, 
in  that  they  carry  pictures  and  medals  of  saints  on  their  hats  and  show 
respect  toward  churches  and  priests.  On  this  account  the  Constitu- 
tionalists dissemble  the  war  which  they  are  making  on  religion  by  leading 
the  Indians  to  think  that  they  are  pursuing,  not  their  beloved  priests,  but 
one  Mr.  Clergyman  (Don  Clero),  whom  they  portray  as  the  worst  of 
criminals.  The  Yaquis  showed  respect  to  the  Jesuit  priests  who  continued 
to  live  among  them.  The  Indians  did  not  destroy  the  furniture  and 
apparatus  except  after  the  example  of  some  of  the  officers  who  came 
there. 

"  The  other  colleges  suffered  even  a  worse  fate.  The  ecclesiastical  sem- 
inary, which  is  one  of  the  finest  buildings  in  the  city,  was  occupied  by 
troops  and  horses  the  same  day  that  the  Jesuit  College  was  entered.  At 
once  officers  and  soldiers  began  to  sack  it.  They  threw  the  books  out  of 
the  windows  or  sold  them  for  10  cents  a  volume  to  any  one  who  would 
buy.  Still  worse  was  the  occupation  of  the  College  of  the  Ladies  of  the 
Sacred  Heart.  This  is  an  English  establishment.  But  the  consul  pro- 
tested in  vain,  and  the  flag  of  that  country  was  not  respected.'  The  most 
shameless  troops,  with  their  women  and  horses,  took  possession  of  the 


18  THE  BOOK  OF  RED  AND  YELLOW 

beautiful  garden  of  the  nuns.  The  women  camp-followers  afterward 
entered  the  sleeping  apartments  of  the  Sisters  and  stole  the  clothes  of  the 
nuns  and  their  pupils.  They  dressed  themselves  up  in  these,  or  sold  the 
finest  clothes  and  furniture  for  a  pittance  and  destroyed  what  they  could 
not  use  or  sell.  The  sick  and  wounded  were  placed  in  the  infirmary  of 
the  college,  notwithstanding  that  there  was  no  need  of  it,  because  there 
was  plenty  of  room  in  the  hospitals.  The  soldiers  and  their  shameless 
women  went  to  bed  in  the  rooms  of  the  Sisters  and  pupils.  The  teachers 
and  children  had  fled  the  evening  before  at  the  approach  of  the  bandits. 

"  It  can  not  be  said  that  these  outrages  were  committed  only  by  the 
soldiers,  and  without  the  knowledge  or  consent  of  the  so-called  Generals 
Obregon,  Lucio  Blanco,  Rafael  Buelma,  Benjamin  Hill,  and  the  pre- 
tended Governor,  M.  M.  Dieguez.  The  last-named  was  once  a  miner  at 
Cananea  and  a  resident  for  several  years  in  San  Juan  de  Ulua  prison  on 
account  of  a  mine  theft  committed  by  him  at  Cananea.  These  were  the 
men  who,  for  the  purpose  of  uplifting  society,  advancing  civilization  and 
spreading  the  sciences,  preferred  to  leave  the  many  barracks  and  other 
available  public  buildings  unoccupied  and  to  lodge  their  troops  in  these 
centers  of  learning.  These  were  the  men  who  commanded  the  flags  of 
foreign  nations  to  be  taken  down  from  the  houses  and  who  threatened  the 
consuls  who  dared  defend  their  countrymen  or  who  would  attempt  to 
appeal  at  any  time  to  Mexico  City  or  Washington.  These  Constitutional- 
ist leaders  were  informed  and  led  by  the  secret  society  members  of  the 
place,  who  are  more  intelligent  but  not  less  savage  than  themselves,  and 
who  advised  them  to  levy  their  heaviest  tolls  on  Catholics  and  to  imprison, 
as  they  did,  the  priests  and  other  persons  whom  they  pointed  out  as 
enemies  deserving  to  be  shot.  These  Constitutionalist  leaders  are  the 
very  men  who  closed  all  the  courts,  so  that  nobody  could  defend  his 
rights.  They  destroyed  all  means  of  communication,  so  that  they  would 
not  have  to  obey  any  one,  even  Carranza  himself.  Finally  they  got  a 
woman  of  the  underworld,  a  notorious  character  called  Atala  Apodaca, 
to  proclaim  war  unto  death  upon  the  Catholic  priests.  And  they  published 
the  vilest  attacks  and  the  grossest  calumnies  in  two  or  three  miserable 
sheets,  which  were  the  only  papers  they  allowed  to  be  circulated. 

"  At  first  they  did  not  persecute  the  priests  so  violently.  But  before 
long  the  mask  dropped  from  their  faces.  They  faked  a  plot  of  the  clergy 
which  had  for  its  object  to  make  the  people  rise  against  the  new  govern- 
ment. On  July  21  Governor  Dieguez  gave  an  order  forcibly  to  arrest  all 
the  priests  of  the  city  and  to  take  possession  of  all  the  churches.  Soldiers 
were  let  loose  in  detachments  of  fifty.  They  went  through  the  whole  city 
and  arrested  not  only  the  priests,  but  also  the  sextons  and  even  persons 


THE  BOOK  OF  RED  AND  YELLOW  19 

found  praying  in  the  churches.  They  took  the  Marist  Brothers,  with 
many  boys  who  were  at  play  in  the  college.  They  arrested  a  number  of 
servants,  and  even  some  seamstresses,  whom  they  accused  of  having  made 
mustaches  and  beards  to  disguise  the  priests.  The  poor  prisoners  were 
forced  to  pass  the  night  in  the  barracks,  cooped  up  in  foul-smelling  cells, 
where  they  had  to  stand  or  to  sit  among  drunken  soldiers,  who  pointed 
their  guns  at  them  and  brutally  threatened  and  vilely  insulted  them.  The 
prisoners  were  stripped  of  everything  —  money,  watches,  books,  and  even 
glasses.  Among  them  were  sick  people  who  were  brought  in  on  cots. 
These  were  simply  the  orders  of  Governor  Dieguez,  which  were  carried 
out  by  his  bloodthirsty  troops.  They  were  eager  to  shoot,  without  investi- 
gation, any  one  whom  a  drunken  or  furious  officer  might  point  out. 

"  The  following  day  they  filled  the  Escobedo  prison  with  more  than 
one  hundred  and  twenty  priests  of  all  nationalities.  Among  them  was 
the  Bishop  of  Tehuantepec,  Rt.  Rev.  Ignacio  Plasencia,  who  was  visiting 
in  the  city.  The  accusers  did  not  even  know  the  names  of  the  prisoners. 
Three  improvised  courts  made  ridiculous  the  forms  of  justice.  They 
afterwards  declared  that  '  no  cause  was  found  for  proceeding  against  the 
defendants  '  ('no  haber  habido  causa  para  proceder  en  contra').  Mean- 
while the  prisoners  were  kept  isolated  (incommunicado)  in  the  dungeons 
for  six  or  seven  days,  against  all  the  laws  of  the  country.  To  inquiries 
by  friends  as  to  what  offense  they  had  committed  or  what  charge  there 
was  against  them,  the  only  answer  was  '  these  are  the  orders  of  General 
Dieguez.' 

"  The  Catholics  of  the  city  were  in  consternation.  There  would  have 
been  an  uprising,  except  for  the  fear  that  the  innocent  prisoners  would 
be  shot.  There  was  no  service  on  Sunday,  nor  were  the  bells  rung.  The 
churches  were  not  opened  during  these  days,  except  to  save  the  Sacred 
Hosts  such  as  had  not  been  profaned.  These  had  been  picked  up  and 
removed  (recogidas)  by  pious  women.  Meantime  the  Constitutionalists 
took  advantage  of  these  days  to  invade  the  churches.  They  profaned 
them  with  their  troops  and  women.  They  stole  everything  of  value  in 
some  of  them.  And  they  searched  for  arms  and  cannon  which  they  said 
were  hidden  there.  They  even  opened  and  profaned  the  graves  and 
announced  that  they  had  found  bodies  of  persons  assassinated  by  the 
clerical  party,  together  with  the  arms  which  they  had  hidden  there.  All 
that  they  really  did  find  was  thirty  or  more  old  guns  which  had  been 
bought  for  25  cents  each  by  the  Marist  Brothers  for  the  military  drills  of 
their  students.  The  Constitutionalists  celebrated  this  find  as  a  victory, 
and  made  vague  assertions  about  having  found  even  a  cannon  and  dyna- 
mite bombs  in  nobody-knows-what   hiding-place  of  the  priests.     They 


20  THE  BOOK  OF  RED  AND  YELLOW 

kept  up  these  charges  until  they  made  themselves  ridiculous.  Then  they 
abandoned  them  for  others  equally  false  and  such  as  could  be  invented 
only  by  wild  men.  A  week  later,  when  Obregon  returned  from  Colima, 
they  began  to  set  the  priests  free  without  any  more  order  or  judgment 
than  was  shown  before.  They  were  allowed  to  depart,  minus  the  money 
which  had  been  stolen  from  them  in  part  or  altogether  in  the  various 
places  where  they  had  been. 

"The  Jesuits  did  not  return  to  their  college,  because  they  were  for- 
bidden to.  Moreover,  the  officers  and  soldiers  had  cleaned  out  everything 
of  use  to  themselves.  They  had  even  gone  so  far  as  to  sell  to  any  one 
who  wished  to  buy  costly  scientific  apparatus  for  which  they  took  a  dollar 
or  two.  Colonel  Calderon,  who  was  careful  under  other  circumstances, 
now  showed  that  his  sectarianism  was  equal  to  his  lack  of  culture.  He 
had  promised  to  protect  the  library  and  scientific  laboratories.  For  fifteen 
days  he  had  lived  with  the  Jesuits.  During  that  time  he  was  convinced 
that  they  were  honorable  gentlemen.  But  to  no  avail.  Calderon  let  them 
be  thrown  into  prison  as  common  criminals.  Not  only  did  he  not  protest 
himself,  but  he  paid  no  attention  to  the  protest  of  some  of  his  officers  and 
almost  all  of  the  soldiers.  The  college  was  occupied  thenceforth  by  a 
guard  of  soldiers,  and  the  musicians  and  their  families.  No  protection 
was  afforded  the  college,  either  by  the  captain  who  was  sick  there,  or  by 
Dieguez,  to  whom  notice  was  given,  or  by  Secretary  Berlanga,  who,  with 
cynicism,  had  come  some  days  before  to  see  for  himself  the  fine  equip- 
ment and  perfect  arrangement  of  the  physical  and  chemical  and  natural- 
history  laboratories  and  the  library.  Finally,  August  3,  the  college 
building  was  confiscated,  with  all  that  it  contained,  without  allowing  the 
priests  to  take  even  their  personal  effects  or  clothes. 

"  Many  of  the  professors  in  the  colleges  of  the  Jesuit  Fathers,  the 
Ladies  of  the  Sacred  Heart  and  the  Marist  Brothers  were  Mexicans.  But 
most  of  them  were  foreigners  who  had  come  to  Mexico  to  supply  the  lack 
of  Mexicans  in  these  congregations.  And,  so  as  to  destroy  them  with  less 
trouble,  the  Constitutionalists  made  up  their  minds  to  banish  the  foreign 
priests  and  professors  from  Guadalajara.  In  order  to  suppress  the  col- 
lege of  the  nuns,  all  they  had  to  do  was  to  take  away  the  building  and 
steal  or  destroy  everything  in  it. 

"  August  5,  Mr.  Lobato,  mayor  of  the  city  (presidente  del  ayuntami- 
ento),  who  is  a  man  of  some  education,  but  with  rabid  anti-Catholic 
notions,  directed  the  foreign  consuls  to  call  their  nationals  among  the 
priests  and  professors  to  the  city  hall  (palacio  de  ayuntamiento)  in  order 
to  define  to  them  their  situation.  About  forty-eight  gathered  there.  He 
marched  them  through  the  streets  to  the  government  palace  (palacio  del 


THE  BOOK  OF  RED  AND  YELLOW  21 

gobicrno)  to  hear  the  orders  of  Dieguez.  The  Governor  did  not  show 
himself.  He  is  an  uncouth  person,  who  does  not  know  how  to  talk. 
Instead,  his  secretary,  M.  Aguierre  Berlanga,  appeared.  He  is  as  small 
in  mind  as  he  is  in  body.  If  he  knows  how  to  write,  certainly  he  can  not 
speak  or  appear  to  advantage  before  people.  He  spoke  in  the  name  of 
Dieguez.  He  said  that,  although  most  were  innocent,  nevertheless  for 
political  reasons  the  Governor  would  banish  them  in  three  days  from 
Mexican  soil.  They  all  protested  against  such  a  flagrant  violation  of  the 
Constitution  and  the  international  laws  committed  by  these  very  persons 
who  called  themselves  Constitutionalists.  The  application  of  the  thirty- 
third  article  of  the  Constitution  —  namely,  the  expulsion  of  "  pernicious  " 
foreigners  without  formal  trial,  is  reserved  to  the  President  of  the  Repub- 
lic alone.  They  appealed  to  Carranza  and  to  all  the  foreign  consuls.  But 
no  attention  was  paid  to  anybody,  nor  were  telegrams  allowed  to  be  sent. 
The  foreigners  were  compelled  to  leave  by  the  port  of  Manzanillo, 
although  that  port  was  still  occupied  by  Federals.  To  their  protests, 
Dieguez  replied  that  the  Constitutionalists  would  be  in  possession  of  the 
port  in  three  days  and  that  the  exiles  meantime- could  wait  any  place  they 
pleased,  even  in  the  field  of  battle,  until  the  way  should  be  cleared.  As 
the  foreigners  were  Europeans,  they  asked  Dieguez  to  delay  the  banish- 
ment until  the  road  to  Vera  Cruz  should  be  opened,  because  Carranza 
was  on  the  point  of  entering  Mexico  and  it  would  be  less  expensive  for 
all  of  them  to  leave  the  country  by  this  road.  Dieguez  replied  that  they 
must  leave  by  way  of  Manzanillo,  in  spite  of  its  unhealthy  climate.  From 
there  they  might  go  any  place  they  chose.  He  would  do  no  more  than 
put  them  on  a  ship.  He  would  not  give  them  any  assistance  for  the 
journey.  All  that  he  would  grant  was  five  days,  without  any  extension  of 
time.  Since  Dieguez  is  as  stupid  as  he  is  fanatical,  the  decent  people  of 
Guadalajara  could  not  impress  upon  him  the  barbarity  of  this  banish- 
ment by  way  of  Manzanillo  nor  the  need  of  assistance  felt  by  these  men 
who  had  been  robbed  of  everything  they  possessed,  nor  the  violation  of 
all  law  and  justice  which  he  was  committing  against  all  foreign  nations 
by  forbidding  them  communication  with  their  consuls  in  Mexico  or  the 
United  States. 

"  On  August  10  the  foreign  priests  and  professors  were  given  an  hour's 
notice  to  be  at  the  railroad  station.  The  purpose  of  the  short  notice  was 
to  prevent  the  people  of  the  city  from  gathering  to  bid  them  farewell. 
They  were  threatened  with  prison  or  death  if  they  delayed.  Soldiers 
were  waiting  for  them  in  the  station.  There  also  were  a  number  of 
Constitutionalists,  secret  service  members,  and  a  band  of  music.  Like  a 
tiger  lapping  the  blood  of  its  victim  and  roaring  with  delight  over  the 
dismembered   body,   Dieguez    ordered   the   band   to    play   the   hymn    of 


22  THE  BOOK  OF  RED  AND  YELLOW 

Juarez  and,  after  other  such  pieces,  as  the  train  pulled  out,  '  la  Goland- 
rina.'  The  Catholics  and  pupils  of  the  exiles  who  crowded  the  station, 
having  come  to  bid  them  an  affectionate  farewell,  wept  with  grief  and 
indignation.  The  priests  also  wept  to  see  so  many  good  people  in  Mexico 
victims  of  a  few  bandits.  They  were  somewhat  consoled  with  the  hope 
that  their  own  woes  would  cease  when  they  should  arrive  among  people 
who  could  better  appreciate  their  science  and  virtue.  But  their  cares 
were  not  to  cease  there.  The  guard  which  accompanied  them  had  orders 
to  leave  them  at  the  end  of  the  road,  even  though  it  were  in  the  line  of 
fire  between  Federals  and  Constitutionalists.  When  they  arrived  at 
Colima,  Governor  Ruiz,  who  was  more  humane  than  Dieguez,  knowing 
that  the  road  was  not  open  and  that  there  was  no  food  on  the  way,  and 
that  to  abandon  the  exiles  there  would  be  to  condemn  them  to  death, 
gave  orders  to  keep  them  all  night  in  the  station  in  the  car  in  which 
they  arrived.  The  following  day  he  took  their  names,  because  in  Guada- 
lajara even  this  much  had  not  been  done.  Governor  Ruiz  informed  them 
that  they  would  continue  to  be  prisoners,  but  he  gave  them  permission  to 
live  in  the  city,  with  the  city  limits  as  their  prison  walls.  He  allowed 
them  to  lodge  wherever  they  could,  and  made  them  pay  their  own 
expenses,  besides  requiring  them  to  report  daily  at  the  police  head- 
quarters. 

"  When  the  Constitutionalists  entered  Manzanillo,  whch  was  not  until 
some  days  afterward,  the  big  chief  Dieguez  wanted  to  send  the  forty- 
seven  foreigners  away  at  once,  without  giving  a  thought  as  to  whether 
there  was  a  train,  a  ship  or  lodging  and  food  in  Manzanillo.  August  20 
he  gave  orders  for  all  to  be  in  the  station.  It  was  known  there  that  there 
was  no  train ;  but  the  passengers  were  kept  in  ignorance  until  midday. 
The  governor  knew  all  day  there  was  no  train.  But  he  was  feasting  in  a 
neighboring  plantation.  He  said  to  his  military  aide,  Lepe,  that  he 
would  punish  them  with  one  day  of  Constitutionalist  camp  life.  For 
fifteen  hours  they  waited  for  the  train  and  almost  suffocated  with  the 
heat.  At  night  the  Governor  arrived  and  ordered  the  train  to  start.  But 
the  English  consul,  and  the  German  consul  who  himself  was  being 
expelled,  and  the  Spanish  consul,  all  pointed  out  that  in  Manzanillo  there 
was  neither  food  nor  ship,  and  they  prevailed  on  Dieguez  to  let  them 
wait  in  Colima  until  some  steamship  should  arrive. 

"  Eight  days  more  the  exiles  waited  for  a  ship.  They  lived  on  the 
charity  of  the  good  citizens  of  Colima  and  especially  on  the  alms  of  the 
priests  of  this  diocese  who,  unconscious  of  themselves,  displayed  won- 
derful charity.  On  the  twenty-ninth  of  August  came  a  new  order  to 
depart,  because  a  ship  was  soon  expected.     Since  now  Carranza  had 


THE  BOOK  OF  RED  AND  YELLOW  23 

established  his  government  in  Mexico  and  since  he  had  promised  the 
United  States  to  respect  the  persons  and  property  of  foreigners,  the 
governor  was  asked  that  they  be  allowed  to  receive  orders  from  Carranza 
or  from  the  foreign  ministers  in  the  capital,  to  the  effect  that  they  might 
sail  from  Vera  Cruz,  or  at  least  that  their  passage  be  paid  from  Manza- 
nillo.  But  Governor  Ruiz  would  neither  do  nor  allow  anything  of  the 
kind.  He  who  was  living  in  a  house  he  had  stolen,  and  he  who  ate  and 
slept  in  another's  home,  need  have  little  care  for  unhappy  exiles.  He  said 
that  there  was  a  ship  at  Manzanillo  and  meantime  they  would  be  lodged 
in  the  hotel  recently  confiscated  from  D.  Bias  Ruiz.  But  this  lodging, 
during  the  three  days  they  had  to  stay  in  Manzanillo,  consisted  only  of 
the  choice  of  the  floor  for  a  bed  or  some  rooms  which  had  been  wrecked 
in  a  filthy,  abandoned  hotel.  On  the  floor  below  were  lodged  the  troops 
and  on  that  above  the  officers  and  some  shameless  women.  The  port, 
which  had  lately  been  abandoned  by  several  thousand  Federals,  had 
been  cleaned  out  of  all  provisions.  As  a  climax  to  the  outrages  suffered 
by  the  priests,  they  were  denied  permission  in  that  hot  climate  even  to 
bathe  in  the  sea.  To  add  to  their  woes  and  to  share  them,  fifty  nuns, 
Ladies  of  the  Sacred  Heart,  who  had  been  deceived  by  the  promise  of  a 
ship,  were  set  down  without  protection  in  this  hell-hole.  The  only  hope 
which  the  Mexican  government  offered  to  the  one  hundred  persons  whom 
it  had  proscribed  was  to  suggest  to  them  the  ship  Bonita,  in  which  one 
hundred  Constitutionalists  were  to  be  carried  to  Mazatlan  and  in  which 
it  was  said  there  was  scarcely  room  for  eight  persons  more.  And  this 
took  place  while  Carranza  and  Dieguez  allowed  a  shipload  of  Chinese  to 
disembark  at  Manzanillo.  Surely  the  Chinese  were  an  advantageous 
exchange  for -so  many  religious  teachers  who  were  being  exiled  for  no 
other  crime  than  that  of  having  consecrated  their  lives  to  the  welfare 
of  the  Mexican  people;  to  teach  them  a  religion  which  forbids  robbery 
even  under  the  Constitutionalist  name  of  loot  (avance),  a  religion  which 
teaches  the  people  the  difference  between  right  and  wrong,  in  order  that 
they  may  not  be  the  playthings  of  anti-Christian  atheists  and  political 
bandits,  a  religion  which  teaches  the  Mexican  people  to  exercise  their 
rights  as  citizens  and  to  demand  for  Catholics  that  religious  liberty 
which  the  so-called  Laws  of  Reform,  to  the  destruction  of  civilization, 
deny  them.  Yet  these  Constitutionalists  permit  the  Mormons,  the  Chi- 
nese and  the  Hindus  to  practice  their  religion  and  morality.  There  is 
plenty  of  liberty  in  Mexico  for  the  association  of  prostitutes,  and  yet 
not  enough  liberty  to  permit  three  Catholic  women  to  associate  for  the 
purpose  of  teaching  little  girls  Mathematics  and  English.  What  crime 
have  the  Constitutionalists  found  in  these  latter?  None.  They  them- 
selves are  now  ashamed  of  the  fable  which  they  invented  of  a  plot  and  of 


24  THE  BOOK  OF  RED  AND  YELLOW 

arms.  But  we  are  wrong.  They  accuse  them  of  having  written  over  the 
doors  of  their  houses  '  obscene  '  words  such  as  '  Ave  Maria  Purissima,'  of 
having  written  upon  their  walls  the  name  of  Jesus,  of  having  read  in  their 
churches  the  pastoral  letters  of  their  bishops. 

"  But  these  Constitutionalists,  who  have  written  over  the  doors  of  the 
schools  the  motto  of  Juarez,  '  Respect  for  the  rights  of  others  is  peace ' ; 
these  men  who  at  the  same  time  open  stores  to  sell  their  loot,  which  they 
have  stolen  from  individuals  and  Catholic  schools;  these  men  whose 
only  thought  is  to  rob  peaceful  citizens  in  order  to  enrich  themselves, 
what  do  they  know  or  care  for  the  rights  of  others  or  for  peace?  These 
men,  who  destroy  all  the  schools  and  force  the  children  to  listen  to  the 
lessons  of  an  ignorant,  bloodthirsty  and  immoral  woman,  like  Atala 
Apodaca  and  admirers  of  her,  like  Valencia  and  Ortega,  what  apprecia- 
tion have  they  of  the  right  of  freedom  of  education  which  the  Constitu- 
tion of  Mexico  itself  guarantees? 

+ 

"  What  crime  have  the  priests  committed ;  what  fault  have  they  been 
guilty  of  that  secret  societies  and  the  revolution  hate  them  so?  The 
Jesuits  had  the  misfortune  to  have  accredited  their  schools  and  colleges 
and  to  have  shown  the  inferiority  and  disorder  of  the  government  system. 
They  have  committed  the  fault  of  educating  the  more  cultured  class  of 
society  and  of  having  merited  the  esteem  of  these  because  of  their  faith- 
ful service  and  modesty  in  that  work.  They  have  committed  the  fault 
of  being  taken  for  rich  men  and  of  having  received  the  sons  of  rich  men. 
What  matters  it  that  nearly  one-fourth  of  their  pupils  could  not,  on 
account  of  their  poverty,  pay  even  one-half  of  the  small  tuition  which 
was  asked  ?  '  You  are  immensely  rich,'  repeated  the  parrot  Dieguez, 
when  the  Rector  of  the  college  went  to  ask  permission  to  get  his  clothes. 
An  educated  person  would  have  tried  to  find  out  the  truth.  The  Jesuits 
are  not  a  business  concern,  which  combines  its  interests  for  trade.  Their 
constitution  requires  complete  financial  independence  in  all  their  houses. 
One  house  can  not  assist  another  to  any  considerable  extent.  Thus  there 
are  houses  that  are  rich,  and  there  are  colleges  that  are  poor  and  even 
poverty-stricken.  The  latter  might  fail  and  the  Order  could  not  help 
them.  Each  college  and  institution  must  live  on  its  own  resources  and 
for  the  benefit  of  the  community  in  which  it  is  located.  The  College  of 
Guadalajara  did  not  even  have  its  own  building.  And  the  scientific 
apparatus  and  furniture  were  not  paid  for,  but  were  owed  for  to  the 
extent  of  $70,000  which  is  still  due  various  Mexicans  and  foreigners. 
This  is  the  wealth  which  '  was  being  sent  to  Europe.'  These  are  the 
millions  which  they  put  in  their  banks. 

"  The  crimes  of  the  Marist  Brothers  were  of  the  same  kind  and  their 


THE  BOOK  OF  RED  AND  YELLOW  25 

wealth  the  same.  They  taught  commercial  courses  and  the  elementary 
branches  better  than  the  atheist  teachers,  and  their  pupils  finished  their 
studies  better  educated,  more  industrious  and  more  moral  than  those  of 
their  enemies.  Secret  society  fanaticism  and  Mexican  constitutionalism 
could  not  stand  the  scientific  and  moral  superiority  of  the  Catholics,  and 
they  preferred  to  bury  the  people  in  ignorance  by  leaving  them  without 
teachers,  which  they  confess  they  lack,  rather  than  allow  '  these  pernicious 
foreigners  '  to  teach  them. 


"  And  what  was  the  crime  of  the  Salesian  Fathers  ?  They  occupied  a 
large  building,  still  unfinished  and  unpaid  for,  where  they  taught  the  arts 
and  crafts  to  the  children  of  the  common  people.  They  had  the  very 
best  tools  and  machinery  for  carpentry,  bookbinding,  printing,  shoe- 
making,  and  the  like.  They  committed  the  crime  of  teaching,  practically 
for  nothing,  trades  whereby  the  sons  of  the  poor  workingman  would  be 
enabled  to  earn  an  honest  living.  These  are  the  things  for  which  they 
were  hated  by  these  infamous  bandits,  who  claim  to  work  in  behalf  of 
the  people  and  yet  who  have  never  been  able  to  establish  a  single  school 
of  this  kind  for  the  people.  These  pretenders  were  ashamed  to  let  a 
foreigner  inspect  their  poor  imitations  of  industrial  schools.  Nor  will 
they  try  to  run  these  machines,  which  they  do  not  understand,  and  which 
they  have  stolen  from  their  legitimate  owners. 

"  The  Fathers  of  St.  John  were  guilty  of  even  greater  crimes :  they 
conducted  a  free  hospital  and  a  free  insane  asylum.  It  is  incredible, 
perhaps,  but  true,  that  the  religious  antipathy  of  Dieguez  and  the  atheists 
went  so  far  as  to  condemn  such  well-known  and  efficient  nurses  as  the 
Fathers  of  St.  John.  Nay,  more,  they  defamed  them.  Their  newspapers 
declared  that  the  Fathers  of  St.  John  were  holding  at  their  asylum 
persons  whom  they  pretended  to  be  insane  for  the  purpose  of  getting 
possession  of  their  property.  Dieguez  even  sent  his  private  secretary 
to  demand  the  freedom  of  an  insane  man  who,  he  maintained,  was 
unlawfully  detained.  The  secretary  was  not  satisfied  until  he  saw  the 
man,  who  was  a  violent  maniac.  Another  time  General  Hill  took  out  a 
patient  and  carried  him  away  with  him.  But  the  patient,  who  was  almost 
an  idiot,  paid  no  attention  to  his  supposed  liberator  and  at  night  said  he 
wanted  to  go  home.  He  was  let  go  and  he  went  back  by  himself  to  the 
asylum. 

"  The  proscribed  priests  and  sisters  spent  three  terrible  days  in  Man- 
zanillo.  Yet  the  promised  ship  did  not  arrive.  Nor  was  there  any  hope 
of  getting  out  of  that  dangerous  climate.     If  they  did  not  leave  there, 


26  THE  BOOK  OF  RED  AND  YELLOW 

they  would  die  of  starvation,  disease  or  anxiety.  They  engaged  to  pay 
$6,500  for  passage  on  the  ship  Hong  Kong  and  Mexico  City,  where  they 
would  have  to  mix  with  Chinese  and  to  sleep  on  miserable  bare  canvas 
cots  in  the  hold  of  the  ship.  But  they  preferred  this  to  the  savage  hos- 
pitality of  the  Constitutionalists.  The  exiles  were  able  to  make  up  among 
them  only  half  the  price  for  their  passage.  It  became  necessary  for  the 
captain  to  accept  their  promise  to  pay  him  upon  their  arrival  at  San 
Francisco,  where  American  citizens  would  not  fail  to  give  assistance  in 
their  misfortune  to  so  many  foreigners,  whose  interests  the  Government 
in  Washington  had  promised  to  protect.  Will  the  American  people  allow 
outrages  such  as  these  to  continue?  Will  they  not  demand  from  Dieguez 
and  the  Mexican  government  an  indemnity  which  will  permit  us  to 
return  to  our  homes  and  in  the  meantime  to  buy  food  during  our  exile? 
"We  all  protest  against  the  unjust  spoliation  of  our  property,  for  which 
we  will  demand  indemnity  when  a  government  shall  be  established.  We 
protest  against  the  barbarity  with  which  they  have  expelled  us.  We 
protest  against  the  savage  manner  in  which  they  have  driven  us  out  of 
the  country  for  which  we  have  labored  so  many  years.  We  protest 
against  the  according  to  us  of  such  treatment  as  would  not  be  accorded 
the  worst  criminals.  We  protest  against  the  indignity  offered  our  flags 
and  our  consulates,  against  the  illegality  of  the  verbal  decree  by  which  we 
were  expelled  and  against  the  execution  of  that  decree  which  was  even 
more  illegal  and  cruel.  We  trust  that  the  American  people,  who  are 
lovers  of  justice  and  civilization,  will  realize  that  they  are  in  honor 
bound  to  defend  us  in  the  name  of  science  and  humanity,  to  demand 
satisfaction  for  the  flagrant  violation  of  the  recommendations  which  were 
made  by  them  to  Carranza  and  his  followers.  If  this  be  not  done,  then 
the  declaration  of  the  Carranzistas  will  be  confirmed  that,  whatever  they 
do,  is  done  with  the  knowledge  and  approbation  of  the  Washington  Gov- 
ernment." 


III. 

NUEVO   LEON,   ZACATECAS   AND   SALTILLO. 

The  Archbishop  of  Monterey,  Monsignor  Plancarte,  is  one  of  the 
scholars  of  Mexico,  and  one  who  has  devoted  his  great  talents  to  Mexican 
historical  and  ethnological  research.  For  forty  years  he  has  been  at 
work,  during  which  time  he  has  published  valuable  contributions  to  the 
history  of  his  native  country,  notably,  "  Tamoanchan  el  Estado  de  Morelas 
y  el  Principio  de  la  Civilization  en  Mexico."  A  sequel  to  this  work,  a 
study  of  the  third  period  of  Mexico's  ancient  history,  entitled:  "La 
Invacion  Chichimeca  en  la  Valle  de  Mexico,"  was  in  preparation  and 
almost  finished  when  the  revolutionists  reached  the  city  of  Monterey  in 
the  State  of  Nueva  Leon.  The  archbishop  had  collected,  during  his 
forty  years  of  work,  at  the  expense  of  great  labor  and  sacrifice,  a  mag- 
nificent library  of  books  and  manuscripts,  as  well  as  a  museum  of 
Mexican  antiquities  which  he  had  himself  excavated.  This  latter  collec- 
tion was  begun  in  1883.  When  Archbishop  Plancarte  was  at  Cuernavaca, 
where  he  resided  before  his  promotion  to  Monterey,  the  Hon.  Elihu 
Root,  and  the  foreign  geologists  who  attended  the  Geological  Congress 
of  Mexico,  came  to  see  this  splendid  collection.  Some  of  the  archbishop's 
archaeological  discoveries  were  outlined  to  American  scientists  by  Mr. 
Holmes,  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution  of  Washington,  in  an  article  pub- 
lished in  a  Philadelphia  scientific  review.  The  archbishop  had  scientific 
correspondence  on  this  subject  with  the  Smithsonian.  As  Mexico  is  one 
of  the  richest,  as  well  as  the  most  interesting  fields  for  archaeological 
research,  because  of  its  ancient  civilization  and  absorbing  story,  the  work 
of  Archbishop  Plancarte  was  most  valuable  to  scientific  men  interested  in 
the  North  American  continent.  This  scientist  at  least  might  have  escaped 
the  charge  of  political  meddling.  His  diocese,  his  studies  and  his  never- 
ending  writings,  gave  him  little  thought  or  interest  in  anything  else. 

But  such  was  not  the  case.  When  the  Carranzistas  entered  Monterey, 
it  was  to  commit  the  same  crimes  as  they  had  committed  in  other  cities. 
Homes  were  entered  and  taken,  the  archbishop's  being  among  the  first. 
Then  his  effects  began  to  disappear.  The  most  valuable  books,  it  is 
openly  said,  were  taken  by  Urrieta,  a  Deputy  to  Congress,  and  De  la 
Paz  Guerra.  Government  Secretary  of  the  State  of  Nuevo  Leon,  both 
supposed  to  be  men  of  honor  and  character.  The  labor  of  forty  years 
was  destroyed.  The  almost  completed  manuscript  of  the  archbishop's 
new  scientific  book  went  with  the  rest.    No  one  gained  by  the  destruction 

27 


28  THE  BOOK  OF  RED  AND  YELLOW 

of  the  manuscripts,  for  they  were  thrown  away  as  useless.  The  museum 
was  looted  and  its  contents  taken  by  people  who  knew  nothing  of  their 
value,  or  who  looked  upon  them  as  no  better  than  ordinary  curios.  With 
these  went  valuable  pictures,  family  heirlooms,  personal  belongings,  etc. 
The  archbishop  was  left  without  the  result  of  his  life's  labor,  and  is 
to-day  in  exile  in  San  Antonio,  with  not  one  single  dollar.  When  I  met 
him  he  was  wearing  the  borrowed  cassock  of  a  simple  priest.  He  had 
not  saved  even  his  pectoral  cross. 

When  the  shepherd  was  stricken,  the  sheep  could  expect  no  pro- 
tection. Priests  were  taken  publicly  to  jail;  professors  were  dragged 
with  them.  The  "  liberators,"  who  wanted  schools,  as  they  said,  had  the 
same  respect  for  the  teacher  as  they  had  for  the  preacher.  Later  on,  the 
foreign  priests  were  freed  on  the  representations  of  their  respective  con- 
suls ;  but  they  were  at  once  sent  out  of  the  country. 

Then  the  Carranzistas  turned  their  attention  to  the  churches.  The 
confessionals  were  burned  and  the  temples  closed.  But  this  was  going 
pretty  far,  and  the  people,  who  however,  had  no  arms,  were  muttering. 
So  five  churches  were  allowed  to  open,  but  only  under  such  restrictions 
as  to  do  away  altogether  with  liberty  of  conscience.  Nero  and  Diocletian 
had  their  counterparts  in  Monterey. 

Then  followed  a  reign  of  terror  for  the  other  towns  of  the  State  of 
Nueva  Leon.  All  the  school  property  was  seized.  Even  that  belonging 
to  individuals  was  taken.  A  monument  of  antiquity,  and  the  finest 
church  in  the  State,  St.  Francis  of  Monterey,  dating  from  the  sixteenth 
century,  was  destroyed,  and  its  works  of  art  mutilated. 

There  were  no  priests  killed  in  Monterey,  but  the  faithful  laity  were 
not  so  fortunate.  Senor  Mandin  was  shot  without  cause  or  crime.  The 
nuns  were  spared  from  the  crowning  shame,  so  far  as  I  can  learn,  but 
not  so  the  daughters  of  many  respectable  and  honest  families.  Zacatecas 
saw  five  priests  killed  horribly  ;  Coahuila  lost  by  shooting  the  pastor  of 
St.  Peter's ;  Zamora  had  the  awful  spectacle  of  one  of  her  priests  found 
killed  in  a  field  and  his  body  half-eaten  by  animals.  But  for  Monterey 
there  was  only  robbery,  spoliation,  imprisonment,  exile,  the  destruction 
of  schools,  and  the  wiping  out  of  scientific  records  which  some  would  say 
were  worth  many  lives. 

Why  did  the  archbishop  leave?  He  was  ordered  to  go.  They 
accused  him  of  receiving  a  letter  from  one  of  Huerta's  ministers,  begging 
his  influence  to  bring  about  peace.  So  even  the  reception  of  such  a  letter 
was  considered  a  crime  which  merited  banishment. 


THE  BOOK  OF  RED  AND  YELLOW  29 

As  to  the  facts  I  have  here  set  down,  they  are  all  from  a  resident  of 
Nuevo  Leon  who  had  every  opportunity  of  knowing  the  truth.  He  was 
well  acquainted  with  the  archbishop  and  all  the  prominent  people  of  the 
State.  He  gave  the  facts  to  me  in  an  interview  and  afterward  set  them 
down  in  writing,  offering  to  have  the  truth  of  them  attested  under  oath 
before  a  notary.  Knowing  the  man's  reputation,  I  replied  that  this  was 
not  necessary.  So  he  added  to  his  statement  an  expression  of  his 
willingness  to  swear  to  the  truth  of  his  words  at  any  time. 


One  of  the  most  informing  statements  in  my  possession,  because  it 
goes  very  much  into  detail,  was  given  by  an  eye-witness  to  the  treatment 
of  the  priests  of  Zacatecas,  already  touched  upon  in  a  general  way. 
Because  this  statement  is  written  so  that  the  printing  of  it  in  full  would 
immediately  expose  the  name  of  the  person  who  gave  it,  I  rewrite  and 
summarize,  using  the  facts  as  they  were  sworn  to. 

At  ten  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  June  25  the  staff-officers  of  General 
Villa  summoned  all  the  priests  of  Zacatecas  to  appear  at  the  headquarters. 
The  priests  obeyed,  and  arrived  very  soon  at  the  house  of  Dr.  De  la 
Torre,  where  Villa  had  taken  up  his  residence.  Colonel  Beytia,  chief  of 
Villa's  staff,  ordered  the  Vicar-General  to  send  for  the  priests  who  had 
not  yet  arrived.  One  of  the  officers  was  appointed  to  accompany  the 
priests  appointed  by  the  Vicar-General,  the  Colonel  saying  to  him:  "  If 
this  officer  does  not  come  back,  you  will  answer  with  your  head." 

At  noon  twenty-three  priests  were  present,  and  the  Colonel  made  the 
following  statement:  "  General  Villa  asks  a  million  pesos  from  you.  If 
this  sum  is  not  turned  in  by  to-morrow  morning,  all  of  you  will  be  shot." 
The  priests  answered  that  it  was  an  impossible  request,  and  they  prepared 
themselves  to  die. 

At  twelve  o'clock  that  night  the  Vicar-General  and  another  priest 
were  taken  to  the  guardhouse  by  Major  Villareal,  who  said:  "  You  are 
going  to  be  shot,  because  you  will  not  give  the  money."  The  prjest  said 
that  they  had  until  ten  o'clock  in  the  morning,  but  the  Major  answered: 
"  I  know  nothing  about  that.  I  know  only  the  orders  I  have  received." 
The  Major  gave  the  Vicar-General  permission,  however,  to  return  to  the 
other  priests,  that  he  might  delegate  some  one  to  act  as  Vicar-General 
after  his  death.  This  done,  he  returned  to  the  guardhouse.  Five  mounted 
soldiers  took  the  two  priests  in  charge  and  brought  them  to  a  hill  near 
the  railroad  station.  They  were  separated  at  a  ditch  and  money  demanded 
of  each  one  in  turn.  The  priests  said  again  that  they  possessed  nothing. 
One  said  that  he  had  his  family  home  and  offered  to  give  them  that. 
He  said  that  he  had  no  right  to  take  money  which  did  not  belong  to  him, 


30  THE  BOOK  OF  RED  AND  YELLOW 

meaning  whatever  diocesan  funds  he  held.  The  question  was  then  asked : 
"What  kind  of  a  death  do  you  prefer;  to  be  hanged  or  shot?"  The 
priests  selected  shooting.  The  officer  in  charge  then  said  to  one  of  the 
soldiers:  "Give  me  your  rifle.  How  many  bullets  are  in  it?"  The 
soldier  answered :  "  Two."  "  Well,"  said  the  officer,  "  I  think  two  are 
enough."  Bitterly,  one  of  the  priests  said :  "  I  think  so,  too."  "  Why," 
asked  the  officer  of  another  priest,  "  do  you  allow  yourself  to  be  shot 
instead  of  handing  over  the  money?  "  The  priest  answered:  "  I  possess 
nothing  but  a  few  old  books.  Take  them,  but  let  it  be  known  that  I  am 
killed  on  account  of  my  poverty." 

The  officer  then  took  them  back  to  the  guardhouse,  where  they  slept 
on  the  bare  floor.  The  same  night  Major  Villareal  informed  the  other 
priests  that  the  Vicar-General  was  to  be  shot  unless  they  raised  the  money 
required.  The  next  morning  the  good  people  of  the  city  sent  food.  At 
eight  o'clock  the  priests  were  sent  out  to  see  if  the  money  could  be  col- 
lected. They  came  back  at  four  with  ten  thousand  pesos.  Villareal 
ordered  them  to  secure  at  least  twenty  thousand,  or  he  would  shoot  four, 
beginning  with  the  Superior.  The  priests  were  sent  out  again  on  June  27, 
and  collected  the  required  sum  of  twenty  thousand  pesos,  the  people 
giving  the  money  to  save  the  priests.  When  this  money  was  paid  over, 
Colonel  Beytia  demanded  one  hundred  thousand  pesos.  If  the  money 
was  not  forthcoming,  eight  would  be  killed.  He  said  that  the  graves 
had  already  been  dug  on  the  hills.  He  gave  the  priests  paper  and  told 
them  to  make  their  wills.  The  priests  went  out  again,  but  could  get 
nothing,  for  the  rich  families  had  gone  away.  The  officer  said:  "  Go  out 
again  and  beg  from  door  to  door."  Again  the  priests  went  out  and 
begged.  It  was  pitiful,  for  even  the  little  children  gave  them  their 
pennies.  This  was  on  Friday.  On  Saturday,  Sunday  and  Monday  they 
were  driven  out  again  under-  guard.  On  Sunday  no  devotions  were 
allowed  in  the  churches.  On  Tuesday,  at  four  in  the  morning,  the  priests 
were  awakened  by  the  cries  and  laments  of  a  girl  in  the  adjoining  room 
occupied  by  the  Colonel.  The  reason  can  be  guessed.  The  girl  was  kept 
in  the  house  two  days.  At  eight  o'clock  that  morning  the  priests  returned 
with  a  hundred  thousand  pesos  that  had  been  given  by  the  people  to  save 
them  from  death.  The  money  was  handed  over  to  Major  Alvarez  and 
Major  Villareal.  Thursday  morning  the  priests  were  still  prisoners  and 
Major  Alvarez  said  that  four  thousand  four  hundred  and  fifty  pesos 
of  the  one  hundred  thousand  were  lacking.  When  the  money  was  paid 
over,  there  was  nothing  lacking.  When  they  counted  the  money,  two 
thousand  and  sixty-six  pesos  were  gone.  The  priests  had  to  go  out  and 
!>cg  again.  They  asked  for  a  receipt  and  the  permission  to  leave  and  go 
about  their  duties.    At  eight  o'clock  that  night  the  priests  were  ordered 


THE  BOOK  OF  RED  AND  YELLOW  31 

to  the  railroad  station  to  be  given  their  freedom.  They  gathered  up  their 
little  belongings,  but  Major  Villareal  ordered  them  to  leave  everything 
behind,  as  they  would  be  back  in  a  few  minutes.  Six  officers  brought 
them  to  the  station.  One  showed  them  a  railroad  coach  and  said :  "  Get 
in  here,  because  General  Villa  wants  to  see  you  in  Torreon."  On  the 
night  of  July  4,  on  the  train,  the  officers  were  drunk  and  insulted  the 
priests  in  vile  language.  On  the  fifth  they  reached  Torreon  and  were 
turned  over  to  a  guard.  In  the  guardhouse  they  slept  on  an  earthen  floor 
full  of  vermin.  There  were  twenty  priests,  all  Mexicans  except  one. 
The  room  in  which  these  twenty  were  confined  was  about  sixteen  feet 
square.  In  the  middle  of  the  night  they  were  awakened  by  women  who 
had  to  pass  through  the  room  to  reach  the  officers'  quarters  in  the  adjoin- 
ing room.  They  received  no  food  from  the  officers,  but  the  people  of 
Torreon  gave  them  food  and  clothing.  They  were  kept  prisoners  until 
Friday.  On  that  day  they  were  loaded  into  a  railroad  coach,  where  they 
met  four  Christian  Brothers  (teachers).  There  should  have  been  six, 
but  two  had  been  killed  brutally  at  Zacatecas,  together  with  the  Chaplain 
of  the  Brothers,  Father  Vega.  This  killing  was  done  by  General  Urbina. 
On  Saturday,  the  train  reached  Juarez  and  the  priests  were  sent  across 
the  international  bridge  into  the  United  States.  No  charge  was  made 
against  these  priests  for  violating  the  laws  or  helping  the  cause  of  Huerta. 
There  was  no  trial ;  no  hearing  of  the  priests'  side  of  the  case.  The  only 
possible  charge  that  could  have  been  made  was  that  one  of  the  priests, 
a  canon,  went  to  console  the  dying  soldiers  at  the  hospital,  when  he  saw 
them  lying  on  the  bare  floor  without  medical  care  and  attention.  Moved 
by  their  deplorable  condition,  he  collected  some  money  from  the  clergy 
and  gave  it  to  the  Governor  of  Zacatecas  to  help  the  wounded.  That  was 
all  the  money  they  gave  to  the  Federals. 


An  interesting  sidelight  on  this  story  comes  from  the  town  of  Jalpa. 
After  the  fall  of  Zacatecas,  several  Federal  soldiers  went  to  Jalpa.  The 
parish  priest  remained  there.  The  town  occupied  an  advantageous  posi- 
tion between  two  mountains  and  was  very  difficult  to  approach. 
Knowing  what  had  occurred  at  other  places,  the  parish  priest  told  his  par- 
ishioners that  they  had  a  right  to  defend  their  lives  and  property,  and 
the  honor  of  their  wives  and  daughters.  The  people  took  up  arms  and 
defended  themselves.  The  priest  is  accused  of  being  a  Huertista.  Stories 
will  probably  be  circulated,  because  of  his  action,  that  the  priest  opposed 
the  government. 

It  is  also  interesting  to  note,  since  the  Constitutionalists  claim  that  the 
rural  priests  are  good  and  that  they  are  in  favor  of  them,  that  Father  Alba 


32  THE  BOOK  OF  RED  AND  YELLOW 

in  the  little  town  of  Calera,  near  Zacatecas,  was  killed.  Reports  say  that 
it  was  by  the  order  of  Gen.  Eulalio  Gutierrez.  Is  this  the  Eulalio 
Gutierrez  selected  by  the  Constitutionalist  Convention  for  President  of 
Mexico? 

Zacatecas  was  attacked  twice.  During  the  first  attack,  the  Constitu- 
tionalists took  a  little  village  about  three  miles  from  the  city,  Guadalupe. 
The  parish  priest  was  attending  eight  or  ten  wounded  soldiers  in  his 
house.  The  Constitutionalists  took  the  soldiers  out  and  shot  them  in 
the  yard,  and  then  rode  over  their  dead  bodies  on  horseback,  crushing 
them  horribly. 

* 

Another  statement,  sworn  to  before  a  notary,  is  of  no  less  interest, 
because  of  the  details  it  gives.  While  I  have  the  sworn  statement  itself,  I 
have  also  had  the  story  verified  personally  by  one  of  the  priests  who  was 
tortured.  He  is  a  Spanish  Benedictine  Father,  now  located  at  the  Bene- 
dictine Abbey  at  Covington,  Louisiana.  His  own  story  was  published  in 
The  Morning  Star,  of  New  Orleans,  but  this  I  take  from  the  sworn  state- 
ments mentioned. 

"  There  were  nine  Jesuit  Fathers  in  a  college  at  Saltillo,  with  four 
scholastics  and  nine  lay  Brothers.  Three  priests  were  Spanish,  one 
French  and  the  rest  Mexicans.  The  college  had  a  total  enrollment  of 
ninety-six  students.  When  Torreon  fell  the  foreign  priests  were  sent 
away.  On  the  21st  of  May,  1914,  the  Federals  withdrew,  pillaging  the 
town  before  leaving,  exacting  taxes  and  taking  the  horses.  That  same 
afternoon,  at  two  o'clock,  the  Constitutionalists  came  in  and  killed  the 
remaining  Federals.  The  Constitutionalists  came  to  the  college  and  took 
possession  on  the  21st.  Villa  came  to  Saltillo  the  next  day  at  nine  o'clock. 
The  Fathers  were  summoned  to  headquarters  at  three  o'clock.  Six 
Jesuit  Fathers,  three  Eudists,  a  Benedictine,  and  a  number  of  Diocesan 
priests  were  ushered  into  Villa's  presence,  who  began  abusing  them  and 
asked  how  many  Spaniards  there  were  among  them.  The  Benedictine 
Father  informed  Villa  that  he  was  a  Spaniard.  He  then  ordered  the 
priests  to  give  him  a  million  pesos  in  coin.  They  had  no  money  and 
three  were  sent  out  to  beg.  Colonel  Fierro  was  sent  as  a  guard.  At  the 
college  they  had  three  thousand  and  eighty  pesos.  They  gave  Villa  that. 
He  was  not  satisfied.  Colonel  Fierro  was  informed  that  the  families 
who  were  able  to  help  them  were  out  of  town.  The  priests  told  him  that 
there  was  nothing  to  do  but  beg  from  door  to  door.  This,  however,  he 
would  not  permit.  Villa  said :  '  It  is  necessary  to  put  you  to  the  guillo- 
tine and  to  execute  all  of  the  Fathers,  and  I  am  the  only  man  to  do  it.' 
When  Villa  was  speaking,  he  kept  cracking  nuts  with  his  teeth  and  using 
vile  language.  .  He  kept  the  priests  prisoners  that  night  in  his  house. 
Some  Fathers  by  this  time  had  collected  thirteen  thousand  pesos.  Villa 
let  the  secular  priests  go,  but  kept  the  others.  That  night  two  priests 
became  ill.  One  of  them  got  permission  to  go  to  the  English  consulate ; 
the  other,  who  was  a  Jesuit,  was  not  allowed  to  go  out.     Villa  himself 


THE  BOOK  OF  RED  AND  YELLOW  33 

said :  '  Take  away  that  shameless  man  from  here.  Put  him  in  a  separate 
room  and  shoot  him  in  order  to  cure  him.'  The  priest  was  in  a  high  fever 
that  night.  The  sick  priest  heard  Villa  say :  '  Take  this  big  goat  out  and 
shoot  him.'  He  was  carried  out  on  a  mattress  into  another  room  and  left 
alone.  In  the  afternoon  Villa  came  into  the  room.  '  What  is  the  matter 
with  you?'  he  asked.  'Tarn  sick  with  fever,'  replied  the  priest.  Villa 
replied :  '  I  will  send  you  out  to  be  shot.'  All  of  Sunday  night  and 
Monday,  the  priest  was  left  there  sick.  At  midnight  on  Monday,  he  was 
ordered  to  get  up  and  follow  a  soldier.  Again  he  was  put  with  the  other 
priests.  In  the  meantime,  at  the  same  hour,  Colonel  Fierro  summoned 
the  other  priests,  and  with  a  naked  sword  in  his  hand  ordered  them  to 
follow  him.  As  they  passed  through  the  hallway,  they  met  several  sol- 
diers, who  were  commanded  to  load  their  rifles.  The  priests  were  lined 
up,  two  by  two,  and  taken  to  an  adjoining  house  which  was  empty.  They 
were  then  shown  into  a  large  room,  illuminated  by  candles.  An  officer 
told  them  that  they  had  been  sentenced  to  death,  and  then  turning  to  the 
other  soldiers,  he  said:  'Whom  shall  we  begin  with?'  The  priests 
quietly  gave  one  another  absolution,  and  a  Jesuit  volunteered  to  be  the 
first.  He  was  taken  away  and  the  others  left  under  guard.  After  a 
short  time,  the  priests  heard  a  shot  and  the  noise  of  a  body  being 
dragged  out.  Colonel  Fierro  and  the  soldiers  returned.  One  had  a 
horse-hair  rope  in  his  hands.  He  approached  another  priest  and  said: 
'  Your  time  has  come.'  The  priest  himself  put  the  noose  around  his 
neck.  He  was  taken  to  the  large  room  and  commanded  to  reveal  the 
place  where  the  treasures  were  hidden.  The  priest  answered  that  he 
could  do  no  more.  The  rope  was  tightened  around  his  neck,  and  he  was 
choked  until  he  became  unconscious  and  fell  to  the  floor.  He  recovered 
consciousness,  however,  and  one  of  the  soldiers  drew  a  revolver  and  fired 
a  shot.  The  same  soldier  ordered  him  to  stand  up,  and  the  priest  was 
again  asked  for  treasures.  He  answered  in  the  same  way  and  was  tor- 
tured as  before.  Again  the  priest  came  to  his  senses  and  was  once  more 
choked  into  unconsciousness.  He  was  then  taken  to  another  room, 
where  he  found  the  other  Fathers.  Later,  two  others  came  in  and 
told  them  what  had  happened  to  them.  They  heard  the  groans  and  chok- 
ings  later  of  the  sick  father." 

* 

The  sick  man  had  the  same  experiences  as  the  others.  They  were 
taken  back  to  Villa's  house,  and  on  the  way  the  soldiers  who  had  mal- 
treated them  asked  forgiveness,  saying  that  they  had  to  obey  superior 
orders. 

"  Colonel  Fierro,  with  an  escort  of  soldiers,  took  the  priests  to  the 
railroad  station.  The  people  had  gathered  around  to  show  sympathy,  but 
the  Colonel  shouted :  '  Those  who  show  any  sympathy  for  these  men 
must  go  with  them.'  They  were  placed  in  a  freight  car  under  guard. 
One  of  the  officers  was  drunk.  When  the  train  was  about  to  leave 
Saltillo,  a  girl  fifteen  years  of  age  came  with  blankets  for  the  priests. 
Villa  ordered  this  girl  to  be  thrown  into  the  car  with  them,  so  as  to  make 
people  think  that  she  was  one  of  their  party,  but  she  broke  away  and 
escaped.     During  the  journey  the  drunken  Colonel  kept  threatening  to 


34  THE  BOOK  OF  RED  AND  YELLOW 

kill  the  priests.  Once  he  pointed  his  revolver  at  the  Superior  of  the 
Eudists,  but  a  soldier  knocked  up  his  arm  and  the  shot  went  wild.  At 
Paredon,  a  prostitute  was  put  into  the  car.  They  came  to  a  place  where 
the  track  was  torn  up,  and  horses  had  to  be  had  for  six  miles.  When 
asking  for  the  horses,  it  was  announced  to  the  people  that  ten  horses 
were  needed  for  the  priests  and  one  for  the  prostitute,  who  was  their 
traveling  companion.  When  they  reached  the  railroad  again,  they  were 
put  into  a  cattle  car  without  food.  During  the  night  the  prostitute 
remained  with  the  officer  in  charge.  At  Torreon  the  priests  were  kept 
prisoners.  At  the  barracks  they  were  given  food.  In  the  morning  they 
were  sent  to  Chihuahua  under  the  guard  of  Beytia,  General  Villa's  chief 
of  staff,  who  was  drunk  and  kept  threatening  death  to  a  sick  priest  and 
to  an  old  one.  They  had  no  food  all  day.  They  passed  the  night  at 
Chihuahua  on  the  bare  floors.  On  Sunday  they  were  given  a  meal  and 
on  Sunday  night  taken  to  the  station  again.  The  following  morning  they 
were  sent  to  Juarez  and  expelled  from  the  Mexican  territory.  There  was 
no  medical  attention  given  them  until  they  arrived  at  El  Paso,  where 
Dr.  Paul  Gallagher  and  Dr.  Carpenter  treated  their  throats.  They  had 
never  contributed  one  dollar  to  Huerta.  No  crime  was  charged  against 
them." 


IV. 

The  Persecution  of  the  Sisters. 

Sincerely  do  I  wish  that  this  chapter  could  be  left  out  of  my  record. 
I  never  approached  a  task  with  more  reluctance  of  soul  than  the  one 
which  faces  me  now.  It  is  abhorrent  to  even  think  that  men  could  be  so 
low  and  bestial  as  to  touch,  with  unholy  hands,  the  pure  women  who 
have  dedicated  their  lives  to  God  and  to  God's  poor;  and  who  have 
consecrated  their  white  souls  to  the  virginity  made  forever  blessed  by  the 
Virgin  Mother  of  our  Redeemer.  But  the  story  must  be  told,  and,  since 
it  must,  let  a  Sister  from  Mexico  who  saw  with  her  own  eyes  the  conse- 
quences of  the  unbridled  lust  let  loose  by  the  revolutionists,  tell  it  in  her 
own  way.  Her  statement  was  sworn  to  in  the  most  solemn  manner  before 
an  American  archbishop,  and  in  my  presence.  Signatures  are  attested 
by  an  ecclesiastical  notary  under  the  official  seal  of  the  diocese.  I  use 
nearly  all  of  the  document.  What  follows  is  translated  from  the  original 
Spanish : 

"  The  sad  and  lamentable  situation  of  our  Mexican  Republic  compels 
me  to  state  under  oath  the  conditions  which  exist  in  Mexico  as  a  result 
of  the  diabolical  persecution  of  the  Catholic  Church. 

"  Our  temples  are  closed  and  our  churches  profaned.  On  our  altars 
the  Holy  Sacrifice  is  no  longer  offered.  Our  confessionals  have  been 
burned  in  the  public  squares  and  there  is  hardly  one  that  dares  to  approach 
the  Sacrament  of  Penance,  even  in  the  most  remote  corner  of  a  home. 
The  Immaculate  Lamb  no  longer  comes  to  aid  our  souls,  and  the  priest 
who  dares  offer  the  Holy  Sacrifice  is  sentenced  to  death.  Homes  are 
desolated,  mothers  cry  Over  the  death  of  their  sons,  husbands  are  torn 
from  their  families  for  service  with  the  troops,  while  their  children  weep 
at  bidding  their  father  the  last  farewell.  Our  priests  are  persecuted. 
They  wander  along  the  road  without  anything  to  eat.  Prelates  have  been 
forced  to  abandon  us  and  it  seems  that  God  Himself  has  hidden.  Church 
bells  no  longer  ring.  The  blood  of  our  brothers  runs  in  the  streets.  Nuns 
are  taken  to  the  barracks  and  their  virginity  attacked. 

"  It  appears  as  if  hell  had  unchained  itself  and  devils  had  taken  pos- 
session of  men  to  harm  their  brothers.  Anarchy  and  revenge  have  seized 
their  hearts,  and  the  rich  are  left  in  the  worst  misery. 

"  Since  Don  Francisco  Madero,  in  1910,  declared  war  against  Don 
Porfirio  Diaz  to  this  date,  we  have  not.  had  a  moment  of  peace,  and  fol- 
lowing Madero's  example,  many  others  have  arisen  in  arms  to  attack  the 
Catholic  Church  on  all  sides  —  some  worse  than  others  —  so  that  there  is 
not  one  single  State  in  the  Republic  that  has  not  been  a  victim  of  horrible 
outrages. 

•  35 


36  THE  BOOK  OF  RED  AND  YELLOW 

"  The  revolutionists  have  closed  the  temples  and  prohibited  the  Sacra- 
ments to  the  degree  that  any  priest  daring  to  hear  confession  or  offer  the 
Holy  Sacrifice  is  shot.  Confessionals  and  some  of  the  statues  of  the 
Saints  have  been  burned  in  the  public  squares,  accompanied  by  music 
and  improper  speeches.  The  churches  have  been  so  profaned  that  some 
of  the  revolutionists  have  entered  them  on  horseback.  Statues  were 
demolished  and  relics  trampled  on.  Over  the  floor  the  Holy  Hosts  have 
been  scattered,  and  in  some  instances  have  been  fed  to  the  horses. 

"  In  some  churches  the  Carranzistas  have  impersonated  priests,  saying 
Mass,  and  have  occupied  the  confessionals,  hearing  confessions  and  dis- 
closing what  has  been  told  to  them.  (All  of  this  I  have  seen  with  my 
own  eyes.) 

"  The  most  beautiful  of  the  temples  in  the  Republic,  the  Church  of 
San  Antonio,  at  Aguascalientes,  has  been  converted  into  the  Legislative 
Hall.  The  Church  of  San  Jose,  in  Queretaro,  is  now  the  public. library. 
The  wonderful  convent  of  the  Discalced  Carmelites,  also  in  Queretaro, 
has  been  seized,  and  the  Brothers  of  the  Christian  Doctrine,  who  owned  a 
handsome  Lyceum,  the  approximate  total  value  of  which  was  over 
$500,000,  lost  more  than  $50,000  spent  in  repairing  it.  The  colleges  of  the 
Lazarist  Fathers,  Jesuits,  and  many  others  have  perished.  The  property 
of  the  Church  has  been  appropriated  and  many  of  the  ecclesiastical 
archives  have  been  burned.  The  orders  of  nuns  have  been  expelled  from 
the  Republic,  giving  them  only  a  half  hour's  time  to  leave,  and  without 
allowing  them  to  take  the  least  piece  of  wearing  apparel.  Many  religious 
have  been  taken  to  the  barracks  and  the  prison,  where  their  chastity  has 
been  in  grave  danger.  From  the  Catholic  schools  the  furniture  has  been 
stolen.  Immorality  has  extended  to  such  a  degree  that  not  only  virginity 
has  been  violated,  but  nuns  have  been  taken  away  by  force  and  are  being 
subjected  to  the  most  horrible  suffering. 

"  In  Mexico  City  I  have  seen  with  the  utmost  regret  many  religious 
who  have  been  victims  of  the  unbridled  passions  of  the  soldiers.  Many  I 
found  bemoaning  their  misfortune,  being  about  to  become  mothers,  some 
in  their  own  homes  and  others  in  maternity  hospitals.  Others  have 
allowed  themselves  to  be  carried  away  by  their  misfortune  and  have  given 
up  all,  filled  with  desperation  and  shame.  They  complain  against  God, 
saying  that  they  have  been  abandoned  by  Him. 

"  Religious  of  various  orders  have  so  dressed  themselves,  and  so  go 
about,  as  to  hide  the  fact  that  they  are  nuns,  for  fear  that  the  revolu- 
tionists may  carry  them  away.     Some  priests  worthy  of  full  credit,  have 

told  me  that,  in  a  hospital  located  in ,  there  are  fifty  religious  that 

were  taken  away  by  the  soldiers,  out  of  which  forty-five  are  about  to 
become  mothers,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  they  have  religious  voca- 
tions and  were  bound  by  vows. 

"  In  the ,  in  Mexico  City,  are  others  in  this  same  condition  and 

others  also  in  the  hospital  of .    In  Celaya  and  Mexico  City  I  have 

seen  many  others  that  were  obliged  to  join  the  Red  Cross,  and  under  this 
pretext  were  held,  as  slaves,  treated  by  the  soldiers  as  though  they  were 
their  own  women  and  not  giving  any  attention  to  the  sick.  In  a  great 
many  cases  young  women,  after  having  been  compelled  to  lead  this^life, 
were  thrown  out  into  the  street,  some  being  killed  as  though  they  were 
animals. 


THE  BOOK  OF  RED  AND  YELLOW  37 

"As  to  the  clergy!     What  have  the  ministers  of  God  not  suffered? 

Fathers  and  (at  present  in  the  United  States)  can  tell. 

They  were  under  sentence  of  death  only  because  they  directed  Catholic 
labor  societies.  Many  have  been  shot,  and  those  having  any  property 
have  been  exiled  and  their  property  seized.  In  Guadalajara  the  clergy  in 
its  entirety  was  exiled,  having  been  compelled  to  leave  in  box  and  cattle 
cars,  their  departure  being  accompanied  by  a  band  playing  burlesque 
music  amidst  mockery  and  hooting.  Eight  days  later  the  religious  were 
compelled  to  leave  and,  thank  God,  women  were  brave  enough  to  arm 
themselves  with  stones  to  use  if  music  was  played  upon  their  leaving. 

"  The  clergy  in  Torreon  and  Zacatecas  were  offered  for  ransom,  and 
after  obtaining  $100,000,  were  compelled  to  pave  the  streets.  Many  were 
forced  to  enlist  with  the  army,  while  others  were  shot.  Lastly,  they  were 
exiled  without  being  allowed  to  take  any  clothing  or  money. 

"  The  clergy  in  Queretaro  were  imprisoned  and  exceedingly  heavy 
fines  imposed  upon  them  and  were  later  exiled. 

"  Many  Fathers  have  been  in  the  penitentiary  in  Mexico  City,  while 
others  are  at  present  used  as  servants.  When  they  are  discharged  they 
must  go  without  clothing  —  many  of  them  being  obliged  to  dress  as 
women  in  order  to  leave.  In  some  towns  they  have  been  locked  up 
together  with  bad  women  and  threatened  with  death  if  they  resisted. 

"  I  have  seen  used  as  saddle  blankets  and  ornaments  on  the  horses, 
the  chasubles,  stoles,  maniples,  girdles,  pluvial  capes  and  altar  linen ; 
while  women  wore  the  copes,  and  the  corporals  were  used  as  handker- 
chiefs. The  holy  vases  have  been  profaned  in  sundry  ways.  After 
drinking  from  them,  the  soldiers  used  them  as  night  vessels,  which  they 
afterwards  threw  into  the  street.  In  some  towns  the  chalice  has  been 
burned  and  the  Hosts  scattered  on  the  floor.  Soldiers  have  sacrilegiously 
eaten  them  and,  as  before  said,  they  have  also  been  fed  to  the  horses. 
Statues  were  used  as  targets  until  they  fell  to  the  floor.  I  have  seen 
wagonloads  of  statues  that  were  on  their  way  to  be  burned;  some  I  was 
fortunate  enough  to  save,  by  daring  to  address  the  chief,  telling  him  that 
I  would  rather  be  burned  before  the  statue  of  my  Holy  Mother.  The  best 
sculptures  have  been  taken  away  to  the  museums.  The  Del  Carmen 
Church,  in  Queretaro,  was  to  have  been  transformed  into  a  dance  hall,  but 
I  do  not  know  whether  the  intended  work  has  been  completed.  In  other 
churches  the  images  of  Christ  have  also  been  shot  at. 

"  On  the  road  from  to  Mexico  City  I  found  seven  religious 

who  asked  to  be  directed  to  a  maternity  hospital,  claiming  not  to  be 
religious,  but  the  fact  that  they  were  religious  was  very  evident  from 
their  manner  of  speaking.  They  related  to  me  how  they  were  able  to 
escape  from  the  mountains  where  the  revolutionists  had  held  them.  I 
tried  to  console  them,  but  it  was  useless.  They  said  that  they  were 
already  condemned  and  abandoned  by  God,  and  were  in  such  a  despairing 
condition  that  they  cursed  the  hour  of  their  profession. 

"  All  these  horrible  things  have  compelled  me  to  come  to  — ■ as  a 

refugee,  bringing  with  me  seven  religious,  of  whom  I  was  Prioress,  in 
order  to  bring  them  to  safety  and  away  from  the  personal  persecution 
that  some  were  subjected  to.  It  is  a  fact  that  they  were  being  searched 
for  by  means  of  photographs,  and  when  found  would  have  been  taken 
away  and  killed  if  they  resisted. 


38  THE  BOOK  OF  RED  AND  YELLOW 

"  Our  community,  the  ,  was  located  in  the  city  of  , 

where  I  left  on  July  9  for ,  in  the  hopes  of  making  a  new  home, 

bringing  with  me  ten  postulants  and  other  religious,  to  get  away  from 

the    danger    which    threatened    them    in    .      I    left    there    other 

religious  awaiting  the  results  of  my  new  foundation  in ,  who  were 

to  join  me  later.  Only  with  great  difficulty  was  I  able  to  keep  them 
together  and  alive,  as  their  families  had  lost  all  their  property;  conse- 
quently their  dowries  were  gone  and  I  had  not  even  a  single  cent.  On 
the  27th  of  July  all  the  Orders  were  expelled  from ,  including  our- 
selves, and  we  were  given  twenty-four  hours'  time  to  leave  the  country. 

"  Not  having  any  means,  I  presented  myself  to  the  local  military 

chief,  ,  begging  him   to  intercede  in  our  favor  with  Governor 

,  so  that  we  might  be  allowed  two  or  three  months  to  look  for 

funds  with  which  to  leave  the  country.  This  gentleman  told  me  that  he 
was  a  Catholic,  and  advised  me  to  leave  the  Republic  as  soon  as  possible 
if  we  did  not  want  to  suffer  the  same  outrages  that  many  others  went 
through  in  other  places.  He  offered  me  all  kinds  of  guarantees  and  told 
me  how  to  save  my  nuns  from  the  many  dangers  that  threatened  them. 

"  To  this  gentleman  I  also  came  after  having  scaled  the  walls  of  the 
Church  of in  order  to  save  four  sculptures  and  other  altar  orna- 
ments. In  this  case  I  was  incurring  a  fault  which  was  subject  to  the 
death  penalty  as  punishment.  Not  only  was  I  forgiven  for  this,  but  he 
gave  me  a  safe  conduct  to  avoid  being  molested  by  any  one.  I  take  the 
liberty  of  recommending  him  as  a  good  man.    I  am  very  grateful  to  him. 

"  On  the  28th  of  August,  I  returned  to  to  bring  the  other 

religious  that  remained  there,  in  order  that  we  might  leave  the  Republic 

together.    Our  religious  were  badly  persecuted  in  and  had  to  be 

divided  and  placed  in  private  homes  to  avoid  their  being  taken  to  the 
barracks. 

"  I  returned  to :  with  my  nuns,  and  on  the  road  I  met  several 

spies  who  injured  us  greatly.  In  a  rented  house  we  only  had  three 
rooms  for  twenty-four  religious  and  novices,  and  each  day  I  had  to  go 
out  in  search  for  bread  to  eat.  They  were  deprived  of  hearing  Mass  and 
receiving  Communion.  God  only  knows  what  I  suffered  to  liberate  them 
from  danger  and  obtain  food. 

"  For  twenty-two  days  I  was  scarcely  able  to  sleep,  fearing  that  at 
any  moment  the  house  would  be  attacked  and  the  nuns  stolen.  They 
were  obliged  to  sleep  on  the  floor  of  one  room  after  offering  to  God  the 
sacrifices  of  the  day. 

"  Some  days  I  was  obliged  to  change  houses  as  often  as  three  times, 
since  our  hiding-places  had  been  discovered,  which  fact  the  officer  (my 
friend)  would  tell  me.    The  spies  denounced  us  again.    I  was  compelled 

to  leave  with  seven  for  the ,  and  beg  of  foreign  prelates  that  they 

permit  me  to  make  a  new  home,  where  I  could  safely  place  the  other 
religious  that  I  had  under  my  charge,  and  who  are  at  present  hiding  in 
the  city  of ,  Mexico. 

"  I  leave  to  God  the  fulfillment  of  His  holy  will  and,  in  the  meantime, 
pray  Him  to  remedy  the  troubles  of  the  Mexican  Republic  and  preserve 
the  President  of  the  United  States  of  America,  so  that  he  may  stop  the 
numerous  calamities  that  have  fallen  upon  the  Mexican  Church." 


THE  BOOK  OF  RED  AND  YELLOW  39 

Names  of  persons  and  places  which  might  identify  the  Sister  Superior 
who  wrote  the  above  statement,  or  her  friends,  have  been  eliminated  for 
reasons  already  given ;  but,  in  this  case  especially,  because  some  of  the 
Sisters  have  not  yet  escaped,  and  the  devoted  Superior,  supplied  with  the 
necessary  money  by  The  Catholic  Church  Extension  Society,  has  returned 
to  Mexico  to  find  them  and  bring  them  to  a  place  of  safety. 

No  further  comment  on  this  sworn  statement  is  necessary. 

If  any  doubt  remains  as  to  the  certainty  of  these  abominable  out- 
rages, the  following,  which  is  a  sworn  statement  before  a  notary,  by  one 
of  the  most  prominent  parish  priests  of  Mexico  City,  ought  to  put  it 
to  rest :  "  The  stories  regarding  outrages  against  Sisters  are  so  common 
in  the  City  of  Mexico  that  they  are  believed  by  all.  I  have  never  heard  a 
denial  even  by  those  whose  interest  it  would  be  to  disprove  them.  The 
common  information  is  to  the  effect  that  many  Sisters  are  pregnant,  and 
others  suffering  from  loathsome  diseases,  because  of  assaults  upon  them 
by  revolutionary  soldiers." 

Another  sworn  statement,  for  the  publication  of  which  full  permis- 
sion was  given  by  the  person  making  it,  testifies  to  the  same  effect.  The 
part  of  the  statement  which  concerns  the  outrages  is  as  follows : 

"  I  have  it  on  the  authority  of  Dr. (no  permission  to  publish 

this  name,  as  the  doctor  is  still  in  Mexico),  physician  in  the  street  called 

in  ,  Mexico,  that  in  his  own  private  house  there  were 

seventeen  Sisters  who  had  been  outraged  by  revolutionists,  and  were  in 
a  pregnant  condition.    I  also  know  that  other  Sisters  in  the  same  condition 

were  in  the Asylum  of  Mexico  City." 

(Signed)     N.  Corona. 
"  State  of  Texas,  ) 

"  County  of  Galveston.  ) 

Sworn  to  and  subscribed  before  me  on  this  24th  day  of  October,  1914. 

(Signed)     H.  Rebaud, 
[seal]  Notary  Public  for  Galveston  County,  Texas. 

On  the  same  day  the  following  sworn  statement  was  given  me : 

"  I  know  that  one  month  ago,  to  my  certain  knowledge,  Sisters  out- 
raged by  revolutionists  and  in  a  pregnant  condition  were  in  the  

Asylum  of   Mexico   City.     This   house   is   in  charge   of   Miss  . , 

(Street )  .     The  stories  of  the  outrages  on  Sisters  are  so 

commonly  spoken  of  in  Mexico  City  as  to  vanquish  all  thought  of  their 
not  having  occurred.  Naturally,  the  names  of  the  Sisters,  and  the 
houses  they  are  in,  were  kept  as  r  ecret  as  possible,  in  view  of  the  future 
of  the  poor,  unfortunate  victim!  ihemselves. 


Superior  of Church. 

State  of  Texas,  ) 

County  of  Galveston.  ) 


40  THE  BOOK  OF  RED  AND  YELLOW 

Sworn  to  and  subscribed  before  me  this  24th  day  of  October,  1914. 

(Signed)     H.  Rebaud, 
[seal]  Notary  Public  for  Galveston  County,  Texas. 


The  next  statement  is  signed  by  the  Superior-General  of  one  of  the 
large  teaching  orders  of  Mexico.  The  good  reputation  and  high  character 
of  the  Superior-General  is  attested  by  two  archbishops,  who  in  witness 
thereto  have  signed  the  original  document,  which  is  in  my  possession : 

"  Having  been  requested  to  inform  you  of  my  knowledge  regarding 
the  outrages  suffered  by  the  religious  in  Mexico  at  the  hands  of  the 
revolutionists,  I  can  truthfully  give  the  following  information: 

"  '  While  the  Mother  Superior  of of Sisters  of , 

was  in  Mexico  during  the  month  of  June  last,  and  having  heard  that 
there  had  arrived  a  number  of  religious  that  had  been  outraged,  filled 
with  indignation  and  pain,  she  asked  permission  of  the  Mother- 
General  to  investigate  the  whereabouts  of  these  religious,  in  the  hope  of 
offering  them  refuge  and  taking  care  of  them,  if  it  were  possible.     Her 

first  efforts  were  directed  to  the  Hospital,  where  it  was  stated 

these  religious  would  be  found.  Upon  calling  there,  she  was  informed 
of  the  veracity  of  these  charges,  but  was  advised  that  the  nuns  had 

already  been  transferred  to  the  religious'  house  of .    Finding  that 

they  were  already  being  taken  care  of,  she  made  no  further  inquiries  in 
this  direction,  in  view  of  the  fact  that  it  was  very  painful  and  mortifying 
to  all.' 

The  following  is  an  extract  from  a  letter  dated,  "  Mexico  City,  Octo- 
ber 25,  1914."  Original  is  in  the  hands  of  a  gentleman  in  San  Antonio, 
Texas : 

"  Concerning  the  subject  you  speak  of  in  your  letter  (the  outrages),  I 
can  tell  you  that,  only  three  months  ago,  a  lady  asked  me  to  receive  in  my 
sanitarium  three  nuns  from  Durango  who  were  in  the  said  condition." 


Here  is  a  translation  from  the  columns  of  El  Presente,  a  Mexican 
paper  published  in  the  Spanish  language  at  San  Antonio,  Texas.  The 
date  of  the  issue  from  which  the  article  is  taken  is  November  7,  1914. 

"  But  let  us  not  mislead  ourselves.  We  said  that  the  revolution  com- 
pletely ignored  the  manly  virtue  of  respect  towards  women,  and  the  irre- 
futable evidence  is  at  hand.  Even  if  some  of  our  readers  who  are  not 
accustomed  to  read  in  print  of  certain  criminal  deeds,  it  is  necessary  to 
state  that  the  Constitutionalist  horde  not  only  devoted  themselves  to 
stealing,  murdering  and  incendiarism,  but,  worst  of  all,  are  the  violators 
of  unfortunate  women  and  are  guilty  of  all  kinds  of  wrongs  and  indig- 
nities. In  every  city,  in  every  town,  and  in  every  country  place,  they 
have  left  the  ravages  of  their  visit.     While  we  could  specifically  give 


THE  BOOK  OF  RED  AND  YELLOW  41 

names,  places  and  dates,  we  will  not  do  so  for  fear  of  being  considered 
chroniclers  of  dishonor  and  lost  virginity. 

"  Yet  there  is  still  more.  The  Mexican  revolutionists  have  committed 
the  greatest  crime  that  could  be  committed,  the  one  that  can  hardly  be 
conceived  by  any  civilized  people  of  the  present  day.  We  refer  to  the 
infamous  and  monstrous  outrages  upon  the  nuns  in  Mexico." 


The  refinement  of  deviltry  could  scarcely  surpass  what  the  following 
from  signed  statement  of  a  Vicar-General,  the  original  of  which  is  in  my 
possession,  narrates :  , 

"A  priest  of  the  same  diocese  ( )  was  locked  in  a  room  with 

a  woman  of  evil  repute.  Then  they  (the  revolutionists)  calumniated  him, 
and  gave  him  a  mock  trial  before  a  "  Council  of  War,"  and  sentenced  him 
to  be  burned  to  death.  They  did  not  carry  this  sentence  out,  but  the 
priest  became  mad.  He  lost  his  reason  for  three  days.  Then  they 
brought  him  to and  let  him  go  free." 

Why  did  they  not  finish  their  wdrk?  A  ruined  reputation  is  not  pre- 
ferable to  a  martyr's  crown. 

This  letter  comes  from  Toluca.  I  have  the  original,  which  was 
written  by  the  daughter  of  a  respectable  family  of  that  city,  a  lady  who 
had  devoted  herself  to  charitable  works.  It  was  addressed  to  her  pastor, 
who  was  then  and  still  is  in  exile  in  the  United  States : 

"  I  am  going  to  ask  you  a  question.    If  one  should  fall  into  the  hands 

of  (revolutionists),  would  it  not  be  preferable  to  end  one's  life 

than  to  suffer  their  usual  outrages  ?  I  did  not  think  that  this  would  ever 
come,  and  therefore  never  made  this  inquiry  before,  but  the  situation 
seems  very  probable  now.  Had  we  not  full  confidence  in  our  good  God, 
I  believe  we  would  perish.  What  we  expected  did  not  happen,  but  what 
we  never  imagined  took  place.  There  is  a  feeling  of  pain,  fear,  indigna- 
tion and  shame  in  the  face  of  so  many  horrible  things." 

Should  she  commit  suicide  rather  than  suffer  what  others  suffered? 
God  of  Heaven!  and  this  is  the  twentieth  century  of  the  Christian  dis- 
pensation, but  Christians  remain  unmoved. 


To  these  I  add  a  sworn  statement,  already  published  in  America, 
addressed  to  the  Hon.  William  Jennings  Bryan,  Secretary  of  State,  and 
which  is,  therefore,  to  be  found  in  the  archives  of  the  State  Department 
at  Washington : 

(COPY) 

Washington,  D.  C,  October  8,  1914. 

To  His  Excellency,  The  Hon.  W.  J.  Bryan,  Secretary  of  State: 

Sir,—  On  July  22  last  I  had  the  honor  of  addressing  your  Excellency 


42  THE  BOOK  OF  RED  AND  YELLOW 

on  the  subject  of  the  persecution  of  the  Catholics  in  Mexico  as  prac- 
ticed by  the  revolutionary  parties  now  in  power  in  that  country. 

The  Third  Assistant  Secretary  of  State,  under  date  of  July  24, 
acknowledged  receipt  of  my  letter. 

Since  then  I  have  made  the  acquaintance  of  the  Rev.  R.  H.  Tierney, 
editor  of  the  Catholic,  paper  America,  published  in  New  York  City,  who 
writes  me  that  he  visited  you  concerning  this  subject,  and  that  your 
Excellency  wished  to  hear  me  on  the  same  matter.  I  have  thought  it 
well,  therefore,  to  note  down  for  your  convenience  the  principal  points, 
and  I  wish  to  say  that  I  have  written  down  nothing  of  which  I  am  not 
fully  aware  and  can  vouch  for  personally.  I  have  lived  in  Mexico  twenty- 
three  years,  am  a.  German  by  birth,  by  religion  a  Lutheran,  and  am  sixty 
years  of  age. 

I  know  of  Catholic  clergymen,  who  under  pain  of  death  were  forced 
to  sweep  the  streets  of  a  city  and  do  menial  work  for  common,  illiterate 
soldiers. 

Of  a  bishop,  seventy  years  old,  deported  to  the  penal  colony  on  the 
Pacific  Coast. 

Of  several  priests  in  the  Monterey  penitentiary  as  late  as  August  30, 
last. 

Of  a  parish  priest,  eighty  years  old,  so  tortured  that  he  lost  his  reason. 

Of  many  deported  to  Texas,  both  Mexicans  and  foreigners. 

Of  priests  and  sisters  tortured  by  hanging  and  strangling.' 

Of  a  priest  in  hiding  who  was  enticed  out  to  confess  a  person  and 
instead  was  thrown  into  a  dungeon. 

Of  forty  Sisters  of  Charity  who  have  been  violated,  of  which  number 
four  are  known  to  me,  and  one  of  these  has  become  demented. 

I  have  been  instrumental  in  saving  six  Sisters  and  seven  girl  pupils 
from  the  same  fate. 

Of  an  Englishman  who  tried  to  save  the  personal  effects  of  these  thir- 
teen women,  being  fined  $2,000  for  the  attempt. 

Of  all  the  confessionals  of  the  Monterey  district  churches  being  piled 
in  a  public  square  and  burned. 

Of  valuable  paintings  stolen  from  churches  and  supposedly  brought 
to  the  United  States  by  filibusters. 

Of  Constitutionalist  soldiers,  led  by  a  man  who  is  now  Governor  of  a 
State  in  Mexico,  doing  on  the  altar  what  decency  does  not  permit  me  to 
say. 

Of  doing  the  same  at  another  church,  into  the  chalice,  and  making  the 
priest  drink  of  it. 

Of  decrees  published  by  those  now  Governors  of  States,  prohibiting 
the  practice  of  religion,  and  closing  the  churches,  convents  and  schools. 
I  am  respectfully  your  humble  servant, 

(Signed)     Martin  Stecker. 

117  B  Street  S.  E. 
District  of  Columbia: 

Martin  Stecker,  being  first  duly  sworn,  deposes  and  says  that  the  fore- 
going is  a  true  copy  of  a  letter  sent  by  him  to  the  Hon.  Wm.  J.  Bryan, 
and  that  the  same  is  in  all  substantial  particulars  a  true  statement  of  facts! 

Martin  Stecker. 


THE  BOOK  OF  RED  AND  YELLOW  43 

Subscribed  and  sworn  to  before  me  this  28th  day  of  October,  1914. 

Charles  M.  Birckhead, 

Notary  Public,  D.  C. 

Decency  refuses  permission  to  chronicle  more.  Even  as  these  state- 
ments stand  I  have  hesitated  about  printing  all  of  them,  but  if  the  story 
is  to  be  told  it  must  be  told  as  it  is.  Whatever  good  is  to  come  out  of  it 
for  the  poor  refugees,  and  the  almost  destroyed  church  in  Mexico,  will 
come  only  when  a  fair-minded  and  just  people  have  the  truth. 

How  do  you  like  it  ?  Put  your  own  religious  teachers  and  pastors  in 
the  same  place  and  judge. 


YUCATAN. 

The  case  of  Yucatan  is  one  of  the  saddest  in  the  history  of  the  Mex- 
ican persecutions.  Not  because  the  people  and  the  Church  were  treated 
more  severely  than  in  other  places,  but  because  Yucatan  had  not  been  in 
rebellion  at  all,  and  had  kept  the  peace.  The  citizens  of  the  State  simply 
accepted  conditions  as  they  were.  The  people  of  Yucatan  are  a  very  quiet 
and  industrious  people.  They  ask  for  nothing  better  than  such  quiet  and 
industry.  Stories  published  some  years  ago  by  an  American  magazine 
concerning  "  barbarities  "  in  Yucatan  were  bitterly  resented  by  the  people. 
No  section  of  Mexico  has  had  more  prosperity,  considering  everything, 
than  the  State  of  Yucatan.  The  fact  that  the  people  did  not  take  up  arms 
is  perhaps  one  of  the  most  eloquent  testimonies  that  could  be  given  as  to 
the  satisfactory  condition  of  the  State. 

The  great  industry  of  Yucatan  is  the  growing  of  hemp.  The  country 
could,  if  the  people  so  desired,  grow  a  great  many  other  things,  but  the 
hemp  industry  is  very  profitable.  Most  of  it  is  sold  in  the  United  States 
or  through  American  merchants.  The  port  of  the  state  is  called  Pro- 
gresso.  It  is  the  Mexican  terminus  of  the  Ward  Line  steamers  from 
New  York.  The  city  of  Merida,  the  capital,  as  well  as  the  state,  is  rich 
in  antiquities  connected  with  the  history  of  Mexico..  Excavations  have 
been  made  which  have  resulted  in  rich  archaeological  treasures.  One  of 
the  greatest  archaeologists  was  the  former  Archbishop  of  Merida,  a  native 
Mexican,  by  birth  of  Indian  blood.  He  was  one  of  Mexico's  most 
learned  men  and  did  in  the  South  what  Archbishop  Plancarte  was  doing 
in  the  North.  He  had  published  valuable  works  which  attracted  the  atten- 
tion of  scientists  everywhere.  The  present  Archbishop  of  Yucatan  is  a 
native  Mexican  of  German  descent,  a  man  of  very  great  ability  and  a  wise 
administrator.  He  has  made  a  decided  mark  on  the  Church  in  his  diocese, 
and  is  loved  and  revered  by  his  people. 


Although  Yucatan  was,  as  I  already  said,  peaceful  and  industrious, 
and.  although  it  was  taken  over  by  the  revolutionists  without  fighting, 
nevertheless  the  first  effort  made  was  to  bleed  the  people.  As  soon  as  the 
Constitutionalist  Governor  Avila  took  command,  a  "  loan  "  of  $8,000,000 
was  imposed  upon  the  hemp  growers.  The  decree  calling  for  this  robbery 
was  printed  in  La  Revista  de  Yucatan  on  September  29,  1914.    The  decree 

44 


THE  BOOK  OF  RED  AND  YELLOW  45 

gives,  as  a  reason  for  the  impost,  that  the  northern  section  of  Mexico 
suffered  great  dangers ;  that  its  fields  were  made  barren  and  its  cattle 
destroyed,  so  as  to  make  it  impossible  to  contribute  in  a  financial  way 
"  to  the  complete  reestablishment  of  order."  The  decree  goes  on  to 
say  that  "  the  State  of  Yucatan  has  been  the  only  one  not  suffering  the 
consequences  of  a  civil  war,  and  able  to  preserve  all  its  fountains  of 
wealth,  which  are  in  full  production.''  The  impost  of  $8,000,000  was  made 
on  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  State  who  have  a  capital  of  $100,000  or  more. 
The  "  loan  "  was  compulsory  and  individuals  subject  to  it  were  obliged 
to  pay  within  five  days. 

Before  issuing  this  decree,  and  also  before  the  expulsion  of  the  clergy 
and  the  closing  of  the  churches,  the  Constitutionalists  took  good  care  to 
disarm  the  people.  Not  a  gun  was  left  in  Yucatan.  Resistance  was  im- 
possible. This  was  only  following  the  plans  already  put  into  force  in 
other  states.  The  Constitutionalists  imposed  their  will  in  the  name  of 
the  people,  whether  the  people  wanted  it  or  not.  Robbery  under  these 
circumstances  is  easy.  One  can  not  object  too  strenuously  when  the 
robber  has  a  gun  and  the  victim  is  weaponless. 

The  condition  of  the  hemp  growers  was,  however,  not  so  favorable 
as  the  decree  intimated.  It  was  not  easy  for  them  to  raise  $8,000,000  in 
five  days,  with  the  consequences  of  war  in  other  states  and  in  Europe 
upon  the  country.  They  complained  very  bitterly,  mentioning  their  busi- 
ness debts.  If  they  could  not  pay  these,  they  would  be  ruined.  The 
paying  of  the  Constitutionalist  impost  meant  paralyzing  the  industries  of 
Yucatan. 

Rut  there  is  a  side  light  also  to  be  thrown  upon  the  difficulty  — 
currency.  While  Yucatan  had  more  coin  than  perhaps  any  other  section 
of  Mexico,  yet  the  coin  had  constantly  been  withdrawn  from  circulation. 
The  people  were  hoarding  it,  because  they  knew  very  well  that  every 
effort  was  being  made  by  the  revolutionists  to  get  all  the  coin  of  the 
country  into  their  hands.  Instead  of  coin  the  revolutionists  had  issued 
paper  money.  The  paper  money  of  Carranza  and  Villa  was  practically 
worthless,  and  even  the  paper  issued  by  the  Mexican  banks  was,  while  I 
was  in  Texas,  valued  only  at  about  16  cents  on  the  dollar.  Americans 
bought  it  at  16  cents  to  pay  their  bills  in  Mexico  where  it  had  to  be 
taken  at  face  value.  Mexican  producers  were,  therefore,  being  paid  at 
the  rate  of  16  cents  on  the  dollar  for  what  they  were  exporting.  To 
make  matters  worse,  the  Constitutionalists  issued  a  decree  obliging  all 
people  having  coin  or  bank  notes,  to  put  them  in  circulation,  or  be  pun- 
ished severely.  It  will  be  remembered  that  more  than  one  Mexican 
"  patriot  "  decamped  with  considerable  money.     He  always  took  his  money 


46  THE  BOOK  OF  RED  AND  YELLOW 

out  in  coin  or  transferred  it  to  Europe.  There  is  a  good  reason  why 
the  present  "  patriots  "  should  force  the  Mexican  people  to  put  their  coin 
in  circulation  and  accept  paper  instead.  The  effect  on  the  currency  and 
on  business  of  such  a  move  can  easily  be  imagined.  The  position  of  the 
planters  of  Yucatan  was  an  unenviable  one. 

However,  the  Governor  was  willing  to  relieve  the  situation  as  far  as 
he  could,  but  not  to  the  extent  of  giving  up  the  "  loan."  He  relieved  it  by 
declaring  that  for  six  months  the  planters  should  not  be  obliged  to  pay 
any  other  debts.  He  intended  putting  on  another  "  loan "  of  from 
$3,000,000  to  $4,000,000  and  hitting  the  smaller  planters  with  it ;  so  it 
was  declared  in  another  decree  that  no  one  in  Yucatan  should  be  obliged 
to  pay  his  business  debts  for  a  period  of  six  months.  There  was  then  no 
excuse  for  the  planters.  The  Constitutionalist  government  was  their 
only  debtor — for  six  months;  but  after  that  time  they  would  have  to 
pay  the  other  debts  in  the  face  of  hard  times  and  a  debased  currency. 
There  was  no  recourse,  for  the  guns  were  aimed. at  them.  One  planter's 
share  was  $400,000.  A  little  more  "  liberty  "  of  this  kind  in  Yucatan 
and  the  industries  of  the  state  would  be  no  more. 

Then  the  Constitutionalists  tackled  the  Church,  but  it  was  necessary 
now  to  take  a  further  measure  of  precaution,  so  the  Governor  issued 
Decree  No.  18,  which  "  under  authority  vested  in  him  by  the  First  Chief 
of  the  Constitutionalist  Army,"  considered :  "  that  the  government 
should  aim  to  purify  all  social  elements,  in  order  to  prepare  for  a  vigorous 
revival  of  constitutional  government  —  considering,  secondly,  that  as  the 
national  press  is  amongst  these  elements  it  must  have  immediate  attention, 
as  up  to  the  present  time,  editors  have  in  their  profession  lacked  the 
necessary  social  guarantee."  (What  this  means,  of  course,  was  known 
only  to  the  government.  Editors  have  never  been  considered  social 
beings  by  their  contributors ;  and  the  Governor  of  Yucatan  had  become 
quite  a  contributor  to  the  press,  with  decrees  at  least.)  So  the  Governor 
ordered  that  on  the  very  next  day  all  newspapers  in  the  state  should 
cease  publication.  And  further,  "  that  before  resuming  publication  they 
would  have  to  apply  to  the  Governor  for  a  permit,  setting  forth  qualifica- 
tions and  proofs  of  honesty,  morality  and  capacity. to  direct  such  a  pub- 
lication." The  Governor  offered  to  give  such  permits  "  to  those  who  in 
his  opinion  possessed  the  necessary  qualifications." 

The  editors  had  to  have  their  honesty  passed  upon  by  the  greatest 
set  of  thieves  that  ever  operated  in  the  Republic  of  Mexico;  their 
morality  passed  upon  by  the  representatives  of  the  most  bestial  soldiery 
that  ever  inflicted  themselves  upon  a  peaceful  populace.  The  liberty  of 
the  press  went  out  by  the  scratch  of  a  governor's  pen.  Yet  this  is  the 
government  in  which  we  Americans  place  our  hopes  for  peace  in  Mexico. 


THE  BOOK  OF  RED  AND  YELLOW  47 

Only  last  week  I  read  a  laudatory  editorial  on  Carranza  in  one  of  the 
most  prominent  American  dailies.  I  wonder  how  the  writer  of  the 
editorial  would  enjoy  having  his  hero  pass  upon  his  honesty  and  morality. 

All  means  of  defense  gone,  and  the  press  muzzled,  then  came  the 
destruction  of  the  Church.  Archbishop  and  priests  were  exiled.  The 
foreign  priests,  of  course,  went  first.  All  residing  in  the  State  of  Yucatan 
for  less  than  thirty  years  had  to  go  within  five  days'  time.  Sixty-five 
arrived  in  Cuba  penniless.  If  they  did  not  go  peacefully,  violence  was 
threatened.  They  had  already  resorted  to  violence  in  Campeche.  So  the 
clergy  were  expelled  as  "  pernicious  foreigners,"  but  not  without  protest. 
The  ladies  of  Yucatan  took  up  their  cause  and  forwarded  the  following 
to  the  governor : 

"  To  the  Honorable  Governor: 

"  We  have  come  to  intercede  on  behalf  of  those  who  have  lived  on 
the  Yucatan  soil,  loving  it  as  their  own,  dividing  the  sorrows  and  happi- 
ness of  our  land  with  us,  with  no  other  end  than  to  propagate  the  doctrine 
of  love,  peace  and  mercy ;  with  no  other  idea  than  to  give  consolation  to 
the  fallen,  courage  to  the  harassed  and  hope  to  the  despairing;  with  no 
other  arms  of  defense  than  the  image  of  Him  who  ordered  us  to  love 
one  another  as  brothers ;  with  no  other  politics  than  planting  seeds  of 
goodness,  charity  and  the  fulfilment  of  our  duty;  and  with  no  other 
defense  or  shelter  than  faith  in  our  laws  and  the  guarantees  of  the 
Yucatan  land  as  a  mother  to  all  living  on  her  soil.  Those  men  to-day, 
against  whom  no  shade  of  wrong  can  be  found  in  Yucatan  or  anywhere 
else,  in  whose  lives  society  has  never  found  the  least  flaw,  are  cruelly 
expelled  from  this  land  without  any  wrong-doing,  but  solely  for  political 
reasons  to  which  they  are  entirely  foreign.  Our  spirit  can  not  conciliate 
this  with  the  points  of  liberty  and  democracy  stated  in  the  Constitution. 
Those  for  whom  we  ask  justice  have  had  no  part  in  the  battles  that  have 
stained  with  blood  our  country  and  filled  our  homes  with  sorrow  and 
pain.  Here  in  Yucatan  we  do  not  and  can  not  understand  the  danger 
that  would  compel  the  exiling  of  the  priests,  as  from  these  priests  that 
are  to-day  exiled  we  have  only  received  lessons  of  piety,  beneficial  deeds 
and  a  public  education.  We  desire  for  our  children,  for  our  brothers,  and 
for  all  the  sons  of  this  Yucatan  soil  who  want  to  keep  their  beliefs  and 
their  ideals  as  their  richest  social  inheritance,  the  Christian  education 
which  is  the  most  becoming  for  the  safeguarding  of  dignity  and  nobility 
of  life.  You,  Sefior  Governor,  no  doubt  retain  amongst  your  most  pleas- 
ing remembrances  those  of  your  school  days,  and  from  which  you  have 
unquestionably  found  much  consolation  more  than  once.  Therefore, 
Sir,  we  dare  invoke  the  sweet,  maternal  love  that,  even  after  death,  lives 
in  your  mind  as  a  benediction  from  the  regions  of  eternity,  and  are, 
therefore,  sending  to  you  our  manifestation  of  pain  and  respectful  sup- 
plication against  the  expulsion  of  foreign  priests.  We  ask  in  the  name 
of  all  Yucatan,  in  the  name  of  all  that  live  and  love  our  land,  and  in  the 
name  of  the  blessed  woman  to  whom  you  gave  the  sweet  title  of  '  mother,' 


48  THE  BOOK  OF  RED  AND  YELLOW 

and  who  from  Heaven  joins  us  in  our  request,  that  you  do  not  consent 
to  close  the  Yucatan  soil  to  those  priests,  and  that  they  may  not  receive 
as  compensation  for  their  labors  for  good  and  peace,  the  bitterness  of 
exile.  We  ask  that  you  do  this  for  our  people  in  the  same  spirit  as  if 
you  were  placing  the  case  before  your  own  father,  and  as  if  you  wanted 
to  deed  a  title  of  just  pride  to  your  son." 

"  Requested  in  Merida  on  the  5th  of  the  month  of  October,  1914." 
The  above  document  will  be  interesting  to  those  who  assert  that  these 
expulsions  of  clergymen  were  desired  by  the  people.     It  is  at  once  a 
testimony  to  the  priests  themselves,  to  the  religious  character  of  the  people 
of  Yucatan  and  to  the  efficiency  of  the  Church  in  that  State. 

The  appeal  to  the  "  liberties  "  guaranteed  under  the  Constitution  is 
certainly  appropriate,  when  made  to  a  Constitutionalist  Governor;  but 
not  timely,  for  Villareal  said :  "  We  want  to  get  along  awhile  without 
our  Constitution." 

I  have  set  down  this  story  of  Yucatan,  not  as  a  solitary  example  of 
overriding  the  laws  and  the  Constitution  of  Mexico,  but  simply  as  an 
example  of  the  peaceful  actions  of  the  Constitutionalists.  It  is  true  that 
the  Governor  of  Yucatan  did  not  murder  any  priests,  nor  did  his  soldiers 
outrage  any  Sisters,  but  he  murdered  the  free  press  and  outraged  the 
laws.  Yet  we  Americans  expect  that  from  such  actions  will  come  peace, 
tranquillity,  and  the  revival  of  industry  to  the  Republic  of  Mexico. 


VI. 


THE   CAMPAIGN    OF    CALUMNY. 


General  Antonio  I.  Villareal  was  the  president  of  the  Constitutionalist 
convention  at  Aguascalientes.  This  convention  was  called  for  the  purpose 
of  bringing  peace  to  Mexico.  Its  keynote  was  supposed  to  be  conciliation. 
It  began  with  a  declaration  of  war  against  the  Church,  and  ended  with  a 
declaration  of  war  against  the  chief  of  the  Revolution.  It  has  plunged 
Mexico  once  more  into  a  bath  of  blood.  Villa  is  in  arms  against  Carranza. 
They  are  flinging  charges  at  one  another ;  and,  incidentally,  proving  from 
their  own  mouths  the  charges  that  I  make  in  this  book.  In  the  manifesto 
of  General  Villa  against  his  rival,  an  original  copy  of  which  is  in  my 
possession,  he  charges  his  superior  with  having  "  interfered  with  liberty 
of  conscience  by  the  persecution  of  the  Church ;  of  having  permitted 
governors  to  suppress  religion,  of  imposing  penalties  on  religious  prac- 
tices authorized  by  law,  of  outraging  profoundly  the  religious  feelings  of 
the  people  through  acts  condemned  by  civilization  and  the  rights  of 

nations." 

* 

Carranza's  answer  is  interesting.    He  says : 

"  If  General  Villa  were  capable  of  weighing  the  meaning  of  what 
they  wrote  for  him  to  sign,  he  would  not  have  put  himself  in  such  an 
unseemly  situation  by  formulating  the  charges  against  me,  because  it  was 
he  himself  who  exaggerated  this  just  resentment  of  the  Constitutionalist 
party  against  the  members  of  the  Catholic  clergy  for  sustaining  the  dic- 
tatorship. He  went  so  far  as  to  cause  real  alarm  or  indignation  among 
all  classes  of  society. 

"  The  fact  is  that  General  Villa,  who  now  seeks  an  agreement  with 
the  clergy  by  showing  himself  so  respectful  toward  religion  and  religious 
practices,  did,  in  every  place  he  occupied  during  the  campaign,  expel  the 
priests/close  the  churches,  and  forbid  religious  exercises.  And  in  Zaca- 
tecas  his  anti-religious  fanaticism  reached  a  climax  which  contrasts 
greatly  with  his  present  Christian  meekness.  He  expelled  eleven  priests 
of  different  nationalities,  of  whom  three  were  French,  and  of  these  no  one 
yet  knows  their  resting-place. 

"  It  is  high  time  to  recall  to  General  Villa  in  this  regard  the  hearty  con- 
gratulation which  he  sent  to  General  Antonio  I.  Villareal,  Governor  of 
Nueva  Leon,  when  the  latter  published  a  decree  in  which  he  restricted 

49 


50  THE  BOOK  OF  RED  AND  YELLOW 

religious  exercises  and  forbade  Confession.    The  following  is  the  text  of 

the  congratulatory  message : 

"  '  Chihuahua,  July  29. 

"  '  General  Antonio  I.   Villareal, —  I  congratulate  you   heartily  and 

enthusiastically  on  your  decree  imposing  restrictions  on  the  clergy  in  the 

State  over  which  you  worthily  rule.     And  already  I  am  hastening  to 

follow  your  wise  example,  because,  like  yourself,  I  think  that  one  of  the 

greatest  enemies  of  our  progress  and  liberties  has  been  the  corrupt  clergy 

who  have  so  long  ruled  in  our  country.    I  salute  you  affectionately. 

"  '  General-in-Chief  Francisco  Villa.'  " 

This  effort  on  the  part  of  General  Carranza  to  shift  the  bla.me  for 
outrages  against  liberty  of  conscience  guaranteed  by  the  Constitution 
weakens  when  it  is  understood  that  at  no  time  before  the  rupture  of  the 
relations  of  the  two  leaders  was  General  Villa  anything  but  a  subordinate 
of  General  Carranza.  The  latter  claimed  the  title  and  rights  of  "  First 
Chief,"  quarreled  with  the  Aguascalientes  Convention  for  daring  to 
suggest  that  it  was  more  powerful  than  he,  and  quarreled  with  Villa 
himself  when  he  gave  his  allegiance  to  that  body.  On  the  other  hand, 
after  the  Battle  of  Torreon,  when  Villa  was  certainly  at  the  height  of  his 
power  and  all  looked  for  him  to  proclaim  his  attitude  and  take  the 
leadership,  he  gave  out  a  statement,  which  was  published  in  all  the 
American  and  Mexican  papers,  acknowledging  his  position  of  inferiority 
to  that  of  Carranza,  hailing  him  as  his  Chief,  and  proclaiming  his  loyalty 
to  him.    This  declaration  Carranza  accepted. 

All  this  makes  very  plain  the  fact  that  General  Carranza  was  the  man 
who  directed  the  policy  of  the  Revolutionists  ;  who  was  behind  him  makes 
little  difference.  It  is  certain  that  General  Villa  was  not.  He  was  acting 
under  the  orders,  or  according  to  the  known  policy  of  the  First  Chief. 
The  responsibility  rests  with  General  Carranza. 

It  is  not  without  significance  that  the  moment  General  Villa  broke  with 
his  Chief,  his  policy  toward  religion  changed  ;  and  it  was  he  who  launched 
the  charges  of  persecution  and  invasion  of  the  rights  of  conscience  against 
his  former  superior.  Villa's  name,  it  is  true,  appears  in  the  accounts  of 
the  torturing  of  priests,  but  Villa's  own  actions  were  few.  His  officers, 
especially  Colonel  Fierro,  seemed  to  take  the  actual  work  out  of  his  hands. 
Much  was  done  in  Villa's  name  of  which  he  probably  knew  very  little. 
His  account  was  bad  enough.  How  much  did  certain  officers  add  to  it 
without  his  authority  or  with  the  certainty  that  he  could  not  interfere? 
Villa's  later  actions  do  not  agree  with  his  former  ones;  while  Carranza 
began  as  a  persecutor  at  Durango  and  persecutes  still  in  the  State  of 
Vera  Cruz. 


THE  BOOK  OF  RED  AND  YELLOW  51 

This  same  Antonio  I.  Villareal,  to  whom  General  Carranza  referred 
above,  is,  I  believe,  the  man  upon  whom  the  chief  responsibility  for  the 
persecutions  rests.  It  was  he  who  opened  the  convention  of  Aguas- 
calientes  with  an  attack  upon  the  Church,  from  which  I  take  the  following : 

"  One  of  our  main  objects  should  be  to  annihilate  our  enemy,  so  that 
he  may  be  absolutely  dead.  .  .  .  Our  Constitution  prohibits  confisca- 
tion; therefore  we  want  to  live  a  little  time  zvithout  our  Constitution. 
.  .  .  We  must  tear  from  the  enemy  the  foundations  upon  which  a  new 
revolution  may  be  builded.  We  must  tear  from  him  his  properties.  We 
must  make  him  impotent,  as  an  enemy  without  gold  is  an  enemy  at  whom 
we  may  laugh.  Our  enemy  is  privilege,  the  privilege  maintained  from 
the  pulpit  through  the  services  of  the  entire  Christian  clergy.  .  .  . 
We  must  tear  away  the  wealth  of  the  powerful  and  must  also  comply 
with  the  Laws  of  Reform,  which  refer  to  the  wealth  of  the  clergy.  In 
the  same  manner  that  the  Laws  of  Reform  nationalize  the  property  of 
the  clergy,  we  must  nationalize  the  property  of  privilege  for  the  welfare 
of  this  Republic.  It  has  been  done.  .  .  .  From  the  clergy  we  must 
tear  the  property  which  they  acquired  under  the  conciliatory  policy  of 
General  Diaz.  They  have  a  right  to  use  the  temples  consecrated  to 
religion,  but  no  right  to  own,  as  they  do,  convents  and  beautiful  buildings, 
all  of  which  the  priests  call  '  educational  property,'  but  are  nothing  else 
than  foundations  of  perversion  for  children's  minds. 

"  The  Revolution  should  not  attempt  anything  against  liberty  of 
conscience  or  liberty  of  worship.  During  the  period  of  activity  it  was 
just  and  it  has  been  done.  It  was  in  order  to  punish  the  clergy  that 
associated  with  Huerta  and  the  Catholics  that  furnished  him  money ;  but 
past  that  period,  we  should,  like  good  Liberals,  respect  all  worship,  but 
never  allow  our  children  to  be  poisoned.  It  is  better  to  prohibit  the 
teachings  of  the  clergy  than  religion.  Let  them  continue  to  preach,  but 
prohibit  their  teaching-rights." 

From  this  speech,  which  was  received  with  great  applause  by  the  con- 
vention, some  things  stand  out  very  strongly.  First,  that  the  Constitu- 
tionalists do  not  want  the  Constitution  until  they  have  finished  robbing, 
raping  and  murdering.  No  one  can  read  anything  else  out  of  the 
discourse.  Second,  after  they  have  taken  all  they  can  get,  and  have  com- 
mitted all  the  atrocities  in  the  calendar  of  crimes,  then  they  want  to  sit 
down  for  a  period  of  merited  rest,  with  the  money  they  have  gathered, 
and  ask  the  Republic  to  give  them  and  their  ill-gotten  gains  the  protection 
of  the  law.  Third,  they  desire  to  take  away  from  the  Church  every- 
thing but  the  use  of  the  church  buildings ;  that  is,  such  of  them  as  have 
not,  at  that  time,  been  turned  to  other  uses.     This,  of  course,  means 


52  THE  BOOK  OF  RED  AND  YELLOW 

liberty  of  conscience  and  worship ;  but  the  clergy  must  not  do  any  more 
than  pray  in  the  churches.  They  will  not  be  permitted  to  teach,  to 
administer  the  Sacraments,  to  attend  the  dying,  or,  in  fact,  carry  out  their 
ministry  in  any  zvay  except  by  prayer. 

How  would  the  Protestants  of  the  United  States  like  to  be  in  this 
condition?  Supposing  the  shoe  were  on  the  other  foot,  would  it  pinch? 
And  yet  a  great  many  of  our  Protestant  fellow-citizens  hope  for  great 
things  in  Mexico  from  the  Constitutionalist  regime. 

It  is  interesting  to  ask  how  the  clergy  are  supposed  to  live  under  these 
circumstances.  According  to  Constitutionalist  decrees,  copies  of  which 
I  have,  they  are  forbidden  to  ask  offerings  or  tithes.  Now,  all  offerings 
and  tithes  for  the  support  of  religion  in  Mexico  have  been  free-will 
offerings.  No  one  has  been  taxed  for  the  Church.  No  one  has  been 
forced  to  pay  anything.  In  some  sections  of  the  Republic  the  old  tithe 
custom  has  been  kept  up  by  the  people  themselves ;  in  other  sections 
religion  is  supported  only  through  offerings  at  baptism,  marriages  and 
funerals ;  but  these,  too,  are  forbidden,  and  forbidden  under  severest 
penalties.  So  liberty  of  worship  in  Mexico  is  to  consist  of  this :  The 
clergy  can  not  teach,  therefore  can  not  train  candidates  for  the  priest- 
hood in  seminaries.  That  disposes  of  the  question  of  having  priests ; 
there  can  be  none.  It  might  be  said  that  the  deficiency  can  be  made  up 
from  other  countries ;  but  a  foreign  clergy  is  prohibited  in  Mexico,  and 
all  the  foreign  clergy  have  already  been  expelled.  The  clergy  has  the  full 
right  and  permission  to  pray,  when  it  is  provided  that  there  will  be  no 
clergy  at  all  to  offer  the  prayers.  Again,  those  priests  who  remain  may  not 
take  up  collections,  may  not  receive  offerings  when  people  are  accustomed 
to  make  them,  may  not  live  by  their  labor  of  love  at  all.  In  fear  lest  some 
of  them  could  make  a  living  otherwise,  the  law  is  to  be  enforced  that  they 
may  not  have  investments,  and  may  not  even  leave  their  family  legacies 
to  the  upkeep  of  religion.  This  is  "  liberty  of  conscience."  This  is  "  free- 
dom of  worship."  This  is  "  democratic  government."  With  this  program 
the  Constitutionalists  come  before  the  American  people  to  ask  for  sym- 
pathy and  assistance ;  and  have  had  it. 

How  would  this 'affect  the  Protestant  missionaries  in  Mexico?  They 
want  it  because  they  desire  the  destruction  of  the  Catholic  Church.  Are 
they  going  to  live  within  the  lav/,  or  stand  up  against  the  law  ?  They  will, 
of  course,  live  within  the  law ;  but  if  foreign  priests  are  not  allowed, 
foreign  ministers  can  not  be  allowed  either.  If  they  are,  the  law  is 
violated.     If  they  violate  the  law  and  live  in  Mexico,  how  about  their 


THE  BOOK  OF  RED  AND  YELLOW  53 

teaching?  How  about  the  many  existing  Protestant  schools  and  colleges? 
Will  an  exception  be  made  in  favor  of  these?  If  so,  Protestants  will  be 
demanding  the  special  privileges  against  which  General  Villareal  shouts. 
If  Protestants  build  churches,  will  not  these  also  be  confiscated?  But, 
above  all,  what  of  the  future?  The  aim  of  all  Protestant  missionary 
activity  is  to  found  Protestantism  permanently.  Missions  call  for  begin- 
nings only.  The  day  is  looked  forward  to  when  the  output  from  the 
missionary  treasury  will  cease,  and  the  converts  support  their  own 
church.  The  missions  are  then  said  to  be  on  a  "  self-supporting  basis." 
Donors  to  missions  in  the  United  States  are  encouraged  with  the  hope  that 
many  of  their  missions  will  soon  be  in  that  condition.  Very  well;  how 
soon  will  the  Mexican  Protestant  missions  arrive  at  that  happy  state 
under  these  laws,  if  the  people  may  not  give  to  the  support  of  their  work, 
even  after  it  has  been  established?  In  their  mad  desire  to  kill  off  the 
Catholic  Church,  are  not  many  of  these  reverend  "  generals "  and 
"  colonels  "  killing  the  goose  that  laid  the  golden  egg  for  them  ?  But  what 
need  they  care?    They  no  longer  need  the  goose. 


How  does  it  come  that  General  Villareal  can  utter  such  sentiments  — 
utter  them  with  impunity  —  and  even  win  applause  ?  It  has  come  about 
because  of  a  campaign  of  calumny,  the  most  outrageous  that  has  ever 
occurred  in  the  history  of  the  world.  It  is  perfectly  true  that  isolated 
examples  can  be  found  everywhere  of  priests  who  have  been  unfaithful 
to  their  holy  obligations,  as  of  ministers  who  have  been  anything 
but  examples  to  their  flocks;  but  that  is  only  weak  human  nature 
occasionally  showing  itself.  The  overwhelming  majority  of  the  clergy  of 
Mexico  have  been  faithful,  both  to  their  vows  and  to  their  duties.  Even 
Sehor  Zubaran,  who  attempted  to  reply  to  Cardinal  O'Connell,  acknowl- 
edges this  of  the  rank  and  file  of  the  country  priests;  but  the  most 
exemplary  priests  in  Mexico  are  the  hard-working  priests  of  the  populous 
city  parishes ;  and  the  most  pious  of  all  have  been  the  religious  who  were 
thrown  out  in  a  body.  The  most  abominable  stories  have  been  circulated 
among  the  people  of  irregularities  of  the  clergy,  not  forgetting  even  to 
slander  individuals.  For  example,  recently  they  sent  through  every 
Mexican  paper  accusations  of  rape  against  Father  Vincente  Latorre.  His 
victim  was  supposed  to  be  Miss  Josefina  Pimentel,  and  the  priest  was 
supposed  to  be  in  prison  for  his  crime.  The  American-Mexican  paper, 
El  Presente,  had  the  following  about  this  charge  in  its  issue  of  November 
7,1914: 

'-  We  have  taken  pains  to  investigate  this,  and  information  shows  that 
it  is  untrue.    Accusations  of  all  kinds  directed  to  the  clergy  in  Mexico  are 


54  THE  BOOK  OF  RED  AND  YELLOW 

all  too  frequent,  and,  for  reasons  or  pretext  always  unfounded,  the  Car- 
ranzistas  have  exiled  them.  Let  us  not  forget  the  accusation  made  of 
finding  arms  and  ammunition  in  the  temple  of  Santo  Domingo,  which  was 
found  to  be  a  great  untruth  and  which  the  Carranzistas  themselves  had  to 
correct. 

"  This  is  not  a  religious  organ,  nor  have  we  any  political  agreement 
with  the  Church,  but  we  aim  to  be  defenders  of  truth  and  justice,  and, 
therefore,  believe  the  action  of  our  colleagues  a  little  hasty  in  accepting 
scandalous  and  untrue  reports  such  as  these. 

"As  regards  Miss  Pimentel,  we  are  assured  that  she  is  not  known  in 
Mexico." 

The  editor  states  the  truth.  When  the  churches  were  looted,  stories 
were  given  out  that  arms  were  found  in  them,  skeletons  of  murdered 
people  and  skeletons  of  babies.  No  one  in  Mexico  believes  these  stories 
except  the  ignorant ;  but  they  serve  their  purpose.  Most  of  them  are  for 
American  consumption,  and  American  consumption  only. 

What  are  the  facts  regarding  the  condition  of  the  Catholic  Church  in 
Mexico?  Perhaps  the  best  answer  is  the  letter  already  quoted  from  the 
ladies  of  Yucatan.  Read  it  over  again ;  it  is  enlightening.  Then  add  to 
it  the  following,  which  is  the  translation  of  a  signed  statement  made  to 
me,  and  now  in  my  possession,  by  a  lawyer  from  Mexico,  a  writer  of 
distinction  and  note: 

"  I  had  not  written  to  you,  according  to  my  promise,  because  I  was 
awaiting  the  confirmation  of  some  very  important  news  from  Mexico 
relating  to  a  fact  which  fully  corroborates  an  opinion  of  mine. 

"  This  news  has  just  been  confirmed  by  my  wife,  who  received  it  from 

the  Superior  of  the  of  Mexico  City,  who  heard  it  from  his 

confreres  in  Morelia. 

"  This  city  (Morelia)  is  the  capital  of  Michoacan,  a  very  rich  and  pop- 
ulous State  (having  more  than  one  million  inhabitants,  and  unequaled  for 
agriculture  and  mining) .  It  has  for  many  years  been  noted  for  its  fervent 
and  solid  piety. 

"  Gertrudis  Sanchez,  who  took  part  in  Madero's  revolution,  a  coarse 
and  irreligious  man,  ordered  the  expulsion  of  the  Salesians  of  Don  Bosco 
and  the  confiscation  of  their  college.  (I  must  tell  you,  by  the  way,  that 
I  am  proud  to  have  had  the  honor  of  materially  aiding  in  the  foundation 
of  this  useful  establishment.) 

"  I  forgot  to  tell  you  that  this  Sanchez,  by  the  will  and  grace  of  Car- 
ranza,  is  now  Governor  of  the  State. 

"  The  Salesians  are  greatly  liked  by  the  people,  who  uprose  to  defend 
them,  armed  with  guns,  clubs,  stones,  whatever  was  at  hand,  and  so 


THE  BOOK  OF  RED  AND  YELLOW  55 

intimidated  the  officials  that  they  revoked  the  order,  and  for  a  few  days 
left  the  poor  exiles  unmolested. 

"  But  Sanchez,  who  had  gone  to  Mexico  City  after  this,  and  there  held 
conference  with  Carranza,  drinking  courage  at  that  fountain,  on  his 
return  to  Morelia,  convoked,  at  night  and  by  stealth,  not  only  the 
Salesians,  but  the  entire  clergy,  to  whom  he  gave  notice  of  expulsion, 
giving  as  a  reason,  of  course,  that  they  were  making  fanatics  of  the 
people. 

"  But  the  courageous  population  was  ready,  and  several  thousand  men 
gathered  in  front  of  the  Governor's  palace.  (Bear  in  mind  that  the  city's 
population  is  50,000.)  All  were  armed  as  well  as  they  could,  all  were 
prepared  to  fight  and  die,  and  when  the  Governor,  trembling  with  rage 
(I  do  not  say  fear,  for  he  is  no  coward),  came  out  on  the  balcony  and 
tried  with  fair  words  to  calm  the  just  riot,  nothing  could  be  heard  but  a 
shout  from  thousands  of  throats  :  '  Robber !  outlaw !  Godless  wretch ! 
Either  leave  our  priests  in  peace  or  we  will  destroy  your  palace !' 

"  I  believe  that  the  soldiers  of  Sanchez  sympathized  with  the  people, 
for  he  himself,  soulless  as  he  is,  made  no  attempt  at  resistance.  On  the 
contrary,  he  underwent  the  humiliation  of  having  to  revoke  the  decree, 
which  had  been  orally  given.  The  priests  were  carried  in  triumph  to  their 
houses  by  their  brave  deliverers,  who  have  sworn  never  to  permit  such  a 
savage  and  sacrilegious  treatment  of  their  clergy. 

"  The  Carranzista  papers  said  not  a  word  about  this,  which  occurred 
during  this  very  month  of  October  (the  second  uprising  was  on  the  17th)  ; 
but  the  fact  is  notorious,  and  will  serve  as  a  lesson  to  many  other  cities 
just  as  Catholic  as  Morelia.  And  this  confirms  my  idea  that  a  leader 
who  would  proclaim  the  fullest  religious  liberty,  such  as  exists  in  the 
United  States,  and  does  great  honor  to  that  noble  country,  would  have 
in  his  favor  the  strongest  national  elements,  and  the  result  would  neces- 
sarily be  most  favorable,  for  he  would  have  established  a  strong,  prudent 
and  patriotic  government. 

"If  the  American  people  would  help  us  in  this  undertaking  they 
would  permanently  cement  the  Christian  alliance  of  two  nations,  and 
would  deserve  more  glory  for  having  procured  freedom  for  our  con- 
sciences than  they  already  have  for  the  emancipation  of  the  negro. 

"  Further  commentary  is  unnecessary.  You,  honored  sir,  will  readily 
understand  that  I  am  right. 

"  You  may  publish  this,  if  you  like,  but  please  do  not  mention  my 
name  or  residence,  for  my  family  is  still  in  Mexico,  and  those  in  power 
there  are  capable  of  anything ! 

"  When  my  family  (I  do  not  know  when!)  will  be  at  a  safe  distance, 
there  is  no  fact  to  which  I  will  not  be  ready  to  attest,  and  defend  in  every 
way."  ►}« 


56  THE  BOOK  OF  RED  AND  YELLOW 

But  even  far  more  interesting  is  the  statement  of  a  former  Governor, 
himself  a  "  Liberal."  The  statement  was  made  before  a  notary  in  Texas, 
a  copy  of  which  is  in  the  hands  of  His  Excellency,  the  Apostolic  Delegate 
at  Washington.  (A  certified  copy  is  in  my  possession.)  The  Governor 
resigned  his  high  office,  not  because  he  was  in  sympathy  with  Huerta,  but 
because  he  objected  to  Huerta's  methods.  He  left  his  home  for  the  sake 
of  his  two  daughters.  He  states  emphatically  that  the  majority  of  the 
Mexican  people  are  law-abiding  and  in  favor  of  order.  He  states  also 
that :  "  The  Catholic  Church,  a  few  Protestant  churches  and  all  the 
other  religious  creeds  of  Mexico  have  never  taken  any  part  in  this  revo- 
lution." Again :  "  In  order  that  you  may  understand  that  I  am  not 
untruthful  and  that  I  am  not  partial  to  priests,  I  will  state  that  in  politics 
I  belong  to  the  Benito  Juarez  party  and  I  was  always  recognized  as  a 
member  of  the  Liberal  party.  I  have  tried  to  practice  the  greatest  respect 
toward  the  Catholic  religion,  and  I  know  for  certain  that  the  priests  of 
my  State,  after  having  suffered  various  vexations,  and  this  without  any 
motive  or  reason,  have  been  exiled.  We  have  had  the  good  fortune  of 
never  having  heard  any  scandal  on  the  part  of  any  of  our  clergy.  The 
same  may  be  said  of  the  other  religious  sects.  I  repeat  that  never  in  any 
revolution  has  Mexico  witnessed  such  barbarous  excesses  as  in  the  present 
uprising,  and  I  speak  as  one  having  experience,  for  I  witnessed  two  and  I 
fought  on  the  side  of  Juarez.  To-day  there  is  no  respect  for  any  of  the 
political  divisions,  or  any  religious  body  in  Mexico.  To  me  any  man  who 
is  honest  has  a  right  to  be  respected,  be  he  Catholic,  Protestant  or  Jew. 
One  may  think  "  pro  "  or  "  con  "  about  some  ideas,  but  about  stealing 
and  killing  there  must  be  only  one  opinion. 

"As  regards  the  clergy,  they  have  no  power,  no  chance  to  favor  the 
rich  people  rather  than  the  poor.  Besides,  the  greater  part  of  the  clergy 
in  Mexico  comes  from  the  poorer  classes.  Furthermore,  the  idea  of 
morality  and  justice  is  prevalent  in  the  minds  of  our  priests." 

It  is  charged  that  the  Church  has  kept  the  people  of  Mexico  in 
ignorance,  and  that  ninety  per  cent  of  these  people  are  ignorant.  The 
answer  to  this  is  very  easy. 

I  need  only  call  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  history  of  the  Catholic 
Church  in  Mexico  may  be  divided  into  only  two  chapters:  one,  the 
Church  under  Spanish  influence;  the  other,  the  Church  under  the  Re- 
public. The  idea  of  giving  freedom  to  the  Church  rarely  occurs  to  the 
Latin  governmental  mind.  Its  idea  of  the  separation  of  Church  and 
State  never  admits  the  possibility  of  the  Church  being  free  within  the  free 
State.  The  separation  laws  of  France  clearly  show  what  I  mean.  Under 
the  pretext  of  separation,  a  plan  was  introduced  which,  if  accepted,  would 


THE  BOOK  OF  RED  AND  YELLOW  57 

have  utterly  destroyed  the  Church.  The  Latin  statesman,  when  hungry, 
wants  a  chance  to  take  a  bite  out  of  the  Church.  Nothing  else  will  satisfy 
him.  Under  Spanish  rule  the  Church  had  often  to  be  used  as  far  as 
possible  to  develop  Spanish  power.  Later  the  Government  seized 
churches,  religious  institutions  and  church  property.  It  gave  back  the 
church  buildings  and  some  of  the  institutions,  but  on  condition  that  it 
could  keep  the  property  and  in  reparation  pay  for  the  upkeep  of  religion. 
It  took  that  burden,  therefore,  away  from  the  Church,  while  indirectly 
keeping  it  upon  the  people.  It  made  itself  the  gatherer  of  God's  share,  so 
that  it  could  always  keep  its  hands  on  the  source  of  supply.  It  dictated 
appointments  of  bishops  and  pastors,  and  said  how  far  the  Church  could 
go  in  carrying  out  her  teaching  mission.  Its  policy  was  to  send  to  the 
colonies  the  unworthy  clergymen,  who  were  not  wanted  abroad.  Bishops 
had  no  choice  but  to  accept  them.  It  hampered  the  Church  on  every  side, 
and  then  blamed  it  for  the  consequences  it  had  brought  upon  itself.  In 
spite  of  this,  the  Church  Christianized  the  people.  But  Spanish  laws 
were  enforced  which  did  not  suit  the  colonies.  Nothing  could  be  done 
without  the  consent  of  the  Spanish  monarch.  Education  was  hampered ; 
but,  in  spite  of  this,  the  Church  established  schools.  The  Franciscans 
and  other  missionaries  placed  schools  side  by  side  with  their  monasteries. 
At  first  the  Indians  did  not  go  to  them,  but  after  a  while  their  opposition 
was  overcome.  In  1524  there  was  not  a  single  Indian  who  could  read. 
Twenty  years  later,  when  Bishop  Zumarraga  wanted  a  book  translated 
into  the  Indian  tongue,  he  mentioned  the  good  it  might  do,  because 
"  there  are  so  many  who  know  how  to  read."  Pedro  de  Gante  had  a 
thousand  children  under  his  instruction,  teaching  them  religion,  music, 
singing  and  Latin.  He  began  a  school  for  grown-up  people  and  founded 
another  for  fine  arts  and  crafts.  Some  of  the  schools  had  as  many  as 
from  eight  hundred  to  a  thousand  pupils.  In  spite  of  the  difficulties,  the 
Church  did  all  she  could,  and  the  Government  as  little  as  possible. 

When  the  Revolution  came,  and  with  it  the  Laws  of  Reform  of 
Benito  Juarez,  an  end  came  also  to  what  little  freedom  the  Church  had. 
She  was  despoiled  of  such  possessions  as  had  been  left  her.  She  was 
forbidden  to  teach,  which  means  to  open  schools  of  any  kind,  except  of 
theology.  Her  ministers  even  could  not  dress  as  clerics.  The  law  of 
May  13,  1873,  forbade  any  religious  demonstration  outside  of  a  church 
building,  and  forbade  clergymen  or  Sisters  to  dress  in  any  way  that  would 
indicate  their  calling.  The  Constitution  of  1857  interfered  with  personal 
liberty  to  the  extent  of  forbidding  anybody  to  enter  a  religious  Order, 
and  refused  religious  Orders  a  legal  right  to  hold  property.  The  law  of 
July  12,  1859,  suppressed  religious  Orders  and  religious  societies,  forbade 
the  foundation  of  new  congregations,  ordered  all  books,  manuscripts. 


58  THE  BOOK  OF  RED  AND  YELLOW 

prints  and  antiquities  belonging  to  such  Orders  to  be  given  up.  The  law 
of  February  26  suppressed  female  communities.  The  law  of  July  12, 
J859,  took  away  all  property  from  the  clergy;  but  that  of  February  5, 
1861,  returned  to  the  Church  its  parochial  residences,  bishops'  houses, 
etc.  Then  September  25,  1873,  saw  a  new  law  which  forbade  any  religious 
institution  to  acquire  property  or  the  revenue  derived  from  it.  The  law 
of  December  14,  1874,  struck  at  the  right  of  the  clergy  to  receive  legacies. 
The  law  of  July  31,  1859,  took  away  from  the  clergy  the  right  to  manage 
or  have  anything  to  do  with  cemeteries.  The  law  of  February  2,  1861, 
took  from  the  Church  her  hospitals  and  charitable  institutions,  as  also ' 
did  a  law  of  February  28  of  the  same  year.  To  make  it  more  certain 
that  the  Church  could  not  be  charitable,  the  law  of  August  27,  1904, 
forbade  clergymen  to  act  as  directors  and  administrators,  or  patrons  of 
private  charities,  and  extended  this  decree  even  to  include  those  delegated 
by  clergymen.  It  will  clearly  be  seen  that,  under  the  Constitution  and 
Laws  of  Reform,  the  clergy  had  little  power  left,  and  the  Church  little 
chance  to  uplift  the  people.  A  Mexican  archbishop  has  written :  "  Not 
only  was  the  Church  despoiled  of  her  ancient  properties  and  oppressed 
by  tyrannical  laws,  but  the  situation  was  rendered  more  difficult  later  on 
by  the  Law  of  Public  Instruction."  However,  General  Diaz  permitted 
some  educational  foundations,  seeking  his  authority  under  the  Law  of 
Private  Beneficence ;  but  under  this  law,  even  if  the  priests  themselves 
wished  to  found  a  work  of  charity,  they  had  to  leave  religion  out  of  it. 
Yet,  in  spite  of  it  all,  some  schools  were  founded  —  many,  in  fact  —  but 
always  under  the  danger  of  information  being  laid  against  their  directors 
and  persecution  following.  A  Mexican  bishop,  now  in  exile,  told  me 
that  Mexican  Catholics  who  desire  to  give  religious  instruction  to  their 
children  have  to  go  the  length  of  "  seeing  "  the  secular  schoolmaster,  and 
even  bribing  him  not  to  tell  on  them.  Still,  one  religious  Order  had  over 
four  million  dollars  invested  in  schools  and  colleges.  The  Constitu- 
tionalists took  it  all,  but  left  the  mortgages  for  the  Order  to  pay.  Then 
they  assassinated  the  professors  of  Zacatec'as,  destroyed  the  libraries,  etc. 

All  these  unjust  laws  are  the  more  to  be  regretted  when  it  is  known  that 
only  the  Church  can  educate  or  civilize  the  Indians.  With  the  Indian  the 
civil  power  is  impotent.  The  Indian  is  religious.  He  may  be  deceived 
into  revolution,  but  it  must  be  deception  that  brings  him  into  it.  Car- 
ranza's  troops  told  the  Indians  that  they  were  fighting  against  a  certain 
Mr.  Clergyman  (Don  Clero),  and  the  Indian  was  always  looking  for  this 
tyrant,  not  knowing  that  it  was  the  Church  the  Carranzistas  meant.  The 
suppression  of  the  flourishing  missions  of  the  Jesuits  and  the  Franciscans 
in  the  north  of  Mexico,  at  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century,  resulted 


THE  BOOK  OF  RED  AND  YELLOW  59 

either  in  the  complete  extinguishing  of  these  Indians  or  their  return  to 
barbarism.  Within  the  last  few  years  missions  among  the  Indians  started 
again ;  but  now  they  are  destroyed.  What  must  be  said  of  the  "  patriot- 
ism "  that,  in  a  country  where  ninety  per  cent  of  the  people  are  illiterate, 
destroys,  or  attempts  to  destroy,  the  only  power  that  has  shown  its  ability 
to  do  the  work  of  civilization?  They  may  advance  theories  by  the  bushel, 
but  there  is  no  theory  regarding  the  work  of  the  Church.  A  business 
man  does  not  desert  his  true  and  tried  methods  of  securing  business.  He 
tests  his  theories  before  he  replaces  the  old  by  the  new.  Mexico,  fifty 
years  ago,  embarked  in  a  new  venture.  The  result  has  been  constant 
revolution,  murder,  destruction  of  property,  and  crimes  which  cry  to 
heaven  for  vengeance ;  and  now  those  responsible  ask  the  world  to 
believe  that  it  is  all  done  in  the  name  of  liberty,  and  that  the  Church  which 
their  forerunners  reduced  to  impotence  is  responsible  for  it. 

The  revolutionists  frankly  directed  their  efforts  against  the  rich  as 
well  as  against  the  clergy.  They  demanded  the  forcible  impoverishment 
of  the  wealthy  class,  without  due  process  of  law  and  without  compensa- 
tion. They  have  put  this  into  force  wherever  they  could.  They  have 
seized  haciendas,  forcibly  entered  homes  and  drove  the  owners  and  their 
families  on  the  streets,  moving  in  themselves.  Now  they  insist  that  the 
clergy  catered  to  the  rich,  and  are,  therefore,  become  the  enemies  of  the 
poor.  They  forget  that  it  is  the  province  of  the  Church  to  aid  and 
comfort  the  poor,  and  that  the  only  means  she  has  for  doing  it  is  her 
influence  in  securing  the  money  for  carrying  on  her  work  from  those 
who  have  it  to  give.  She  has,  therefore,  always  in  history  stood  between 
the  rich  and  the  poor.  If  this  were  not  her  position,  how  could  she 
establish  her  hospitals,  schools,  orphanages,  and  a  thousand  other  works 
of  charity?  Even  in  the  United  States  the  cry  goes  up  that  the  Church  (by 
which  is  meant  all  Christian  religious  effort)  should  devote  itself  more  to 
philanthropy  and  less  to  the  cultivation  of  simple  piety.  In  other  words, 
the  demand  is  being  made  that  the  Church  more  than  ever  must  devote 
herself  to  securing  from  the  rich  the  means  to  alleviate  suffering.  How 
could  religion  answer  that  demand  if  its  enemies  charge  that  it  caters  to 
the  rich  when  it  begs  from  them?  In  Mexico  the  Constitutionalists  not 
only  kill  the  Church  because  they  say  she  does  no  good,  but,  on  the  other 
hand,  they  kill  her  when  she  does  do  good. 

During  the  Spanish  regime  in  Mexico  the  Church  maintained  as 
friendly  a  relation  with  the  State  as  was  possible.  If  she  had  not  main- 
lined such  relations  her  voice  would  never  have  been  heard  in  court, 
[t  was  the  influence  of  the  Church  that  secured  a  hearing  for  Las  Casas 
jainst  the  oppressors  of  the  Indians.    To-day  in  Mexico  the  Church  has 


60  THE  BOOK  OF  RED  AND  YELLOW 

no  influence.  A  new  Las  Casas  could  accomplish  nothing;  but  the 
Church  has  had  some  influence  with  property-holders,  which  was  always 
used  to  favor  the  poor.  The  only  mitigation  of  the  hard  lot  of  some  of 
the  peons  was  won  by  the  influence  of  the  Church  over  individuals. 

The  Constitutionalists  insist  that  the  people  of  Mexico  are  against  the 
Church ;  yet,  when  the  churches  are  opened,  they  are  crowded.  In  more 
than  one  case  the  persecutors  had  to  stop  their  fury  in  fear  of  an  uprising 
among  the  people,  who  crowded  around  the  exiled  priests  until  the  leaders 
were  terrified.  Rut  the  same  leaders  took  good  care  in  the  next  place  that 
the  people  could  not  menace  them,  for  they  took  away  their  weapons. 

The  Zapata  revolution  is  a  case  in  point.  Zapata  has  held  two  States 
in  a  grip  of  iron.  His  revolution  is  popular.  His  soldiers  are  the  only 
ones  who  show  a  disposition  to  work.  They  have  taken  up  land  and 
they  are  cultivating  it.  A  short  time  ago  I  met  a  prominent  gentleman, 
Mexican,  who  had  gone  through  the  entire  length  of  Zapata's  territory 
in  carriage  and  on  horseback.  He  scarcely  saw  a  soldier.  People  were 
working  in  their  fields.  The  Church  in  Zapata's  territory  has  not  been 
molested.  Churches  are  open,  and  one  of  the  bishops,  at  this  writing,  is 
actually  out  on  his  confirmation  tour.  If  the  Revolution  is  a  popular 
uprising  against  the  Church,  why  is  it  that  Zapata  holds  his  power 
through  the  popularity  of  his  movement  with  the  people,  though  he  has 
made  no  attack  whatever  upon  the  Church  and  religion?  Some  excesses 
have  been  committed  by  Zapatists,  it  is  true,  but  by  the  camp-followers. 
None  of  the  exiles  I  met  have  charged  Zapata  with  responsibility  for 
them.  On  the  contrary,  they  warmly  defended  him,  and  stated  that 
when  outrages  have  been  committed  neither  Zapata  himself  nor  the 
general  run  of  his  people  had  any  responsibility  for  them.  On  the  other 
hand,  outrages  by  Constitutionalists  had  been  fomented  by  the  most 
abominable  calumnies,  and  by  the  leaders  themselves.  They  manu- 
factured plots  out  of  whole  cloth.  "  Conspiracies  by  the  clergy,"  never 
even  thought  of  before  the  troops  entered,  were  announced  even  before 
the  Constitutionalists  had  had  time  to  make  an  investigation. 

The  cry  in  this  revolution  has  been  a  cry  for  vengeance  against  the 
assassins  of  Madero.  Carranza  himself  makes  this  his  rallying  cry, 
forgetting  that  he  himself  was  against  Madero  and  intended  leading  a 
revolution  against  him.  The  opportunity  which  arose  through  Madero's 
death  did  not  change  his  mind  about  a  revolution,  but  changed  the  details. 
Now  he  charges  the  clergy  with  having  cooperated  in  the  assassination  of 
Madero.  His  proof  is  that  the  clergy  recognized  Madero's  government. 
How  much  truth  is  there  in  this  statement  ? 

The  revolution  which  ended  in  the  assassination  of  Madero  lasted  ten 
days.    It  came  on  suddenly  and  without  warning.    These  days  are  called 


THE  BOOK  OF  RED  AND  YELLOW  61 

the  "  Ten  Tragic  Days."  The  outbreak  occurred  in  the  City  of  Mexico, 
and  was  practically  confined  to  that  city.  If  the  clergy  were  in  league  to 
bring  about  the  downfall  of  Madero,  it  might  be  expected  that  the  revo- 
lution would  have  been  general.  What  time  did  the  clergy  have  to 
compass  their  ends  in  ten  days,  and  what  object  could  they  have  had  for 
bringing  about  the  downfall  of  the  first  government  in  fifty  years  which 
permitted  free  elections,  by  means  of  which  the  Catholic  party,  it  is 
conceded,  would  have  been  placed  in  power?  The  downfall  of  Madero 
was  a  blow  to  the  interests  of  religion.  It  is  perfectly  true  that  the 
bishops  and  clergy  recognized  the  government  of  Huerta.  What  else 
could  they  do?  He  had  been  placed  in  power  according  to  the  laws  and 
Constitution  of  Mexico.  He  had  been  recognized  by  the  Congress,  the 
Senate,  the  Supreme  Court  and  the  diplomatic  corps,  including  the 
American  Minister.  The  Church  stands  for.  lawful  authority.  When 
that  authority  is  in  power  it  is  the  duty  of  the  Church  to  accept  it  and 
live  under  it.  This  is  exactly  what  was  done.  It  is  not  the  business  of 
the  Church  to  foment  revolution.  The  clergy  had  no  right  to  put  Huerta 
on  trial.  Neither  the  laws  of  Mexico  nor  their  own  obligation  as  priests 
assigned  to  them  any  such  duty.  The  Church  wanted  peace,  and  accepted 
Huerta  as  she  had  accepted  Madero.  Had  she  done  otherwise,  there 
might  have  been  a  lawful  charge  against  her  of  fostering  rebellion ;  but 
against  the  Church  the  charges  will  be  made  anyhow.  The  hatreds  of  man 
for  man  are  unaccountable  enough,  but  there  is  a  still  more  unaccountable 
hatred  of  man  for  God,  and  all  that  represents  Him. 

I  have  seen  a  document  issued  by  the  Constitutionalist  representatives 
in  New  York  City,  attempting  to  prove  that  the  Church  was  playing 
politics.  The  letter  is  dated  July  11,  1913.  It  is  from  Archbishop  Mora 
of  Mexico  City  to  Senor  Urrutia.  The  Archbishop  said :  "  I  beg  to 
assure  you  once  more  that  all  the  curates  and  priests  under  my  jurisdic- 
tion, in  compliance  with  their  duty,  will  make  every  effort,  in  order  to 
bring  about,  as  soon  as  possible,  the  fulfillment  of  the  aspirations  of  all 
the  good  people  in  this  Republic,  who  desire  the  peace  and  tranquillity 
of  the  beloved  country.  I  say  that  they  do  so  in  compliance  with  their 
duty,  because  the  Church  desires  peace  and  to  avoid  bloodshed,  and  that 
all  cooperate  to  the  ultimate  object  of  society,  which  is  the  well-being 
of  all  its  members."  Is  there  anything  in  these  words  that  indicates  more 
than  a  desire  to  work  under  the  existing  form  of  government,  with  an 
object  of  bringing  peace  to  the  country?  This  is  the  evidence  put  forth 
by  the  representatives  of  the  Constitutionalists  themselves  to  justify 
murder,  exile,  imprisonment  and  unspeakable  outrages  against  the 
innocent.     Wrhat  decent  court  could  accept  such  evidence?     Did  even 


62  THE  BOOK  OF  RED  AND  YELLOW 

Robespierre  send  a  single  person  to  the  guillotine  on  such  testimony?    If 
he  did,  who  wants  to  be  classed  with  Robespierre  ? 

Truth  is  that  the  Constitutionalists  have  gone  forward  without  even 
a  probability  of  evidence.  They  have  gone  forward  in  the  face  of  a 
pastoral  letter,  issued  by  a  number  of  bishops  in  the  City  of  Mexico, 
protesting  vigorously,  while  Huerta  was  still  in  power,  that  neither  the 
Church  nor  the  clergy  had  mixed  up  in  revolution  or  in  political  matters. 
As  one  Mexican  archbishop  said  to  me :  "  These  men  have  adopted  the 
cry  of  Voltaire,  '  Fling  mud  ;  some  of  it  will  stick.'  "  They  fling  the  mud 
in  such  generous  quantities  that  some  of  it  is  bound  to  stick ;  even  in  the 
face  of  the  fact  that  Huerta  himself,  whom  the  Church  was  supposed  to 
uphold,  gave  out  a  law  of  oppression  concerning  ecclesiastical  property, 
and  suppressed  Catholic  newspapers,  among  them  La  Nacion,  the  organ 
of  the  Catholic  party,  simply  because  this  party  refused  him  votes.  He 
exiled  its  president  and  persecuted  its  members ;  yet  they  charge  that  he 
was  the  candidate  of  the  Catholics  themselves. 


VII. 

OUTSIDE  INFLUENCES  AGAINST  THE   CHURCH   IN    MEXICO. 

The  assertion  that  the  recent  revolution  in  Mexico  was  financed  and 
the  revolutionists  armed  by  capitalists  in  the  United  States,  one  meets 
constantly  and  hears  on  every  side.  I  have  never  heard  it  denied,  even 
in  our  own  country.  Americans  do  not  take  the  trouble  to  deny  what 
they  believe  to  be  true.  With  that  situation  I  have  nothing  at  all  to  do. 
As  a  citizen  of  the  United  States  I  deeply  regret  it,  but  my  present  dis- 
cussion concerns  chiefly  the  outrages  against  religion. 

The  charge  that  the  Government  of  the  United  States  directly  aided 
and  abetted  the  revolutionists  I  do  not  entirely  believe.  I  have  too  high 
a  regard  for  President  Wilson  to  concede  anything  of  the  kind.  I  do 
believe  that  he  was  mistaken;  but  I  also  believe  that,  for  the  mistake, 
biased  information  and  biased  investigators  were  mainly  responsible.  I 
believe  that  men  sent  by  the  President  to  report  facts  as  they  found  them 
reported  visionary  dreams  of  things  as  they  wanted  them.  I  believe  it, 
too,  on  the  testimony  of  honorable  men,  who  had  more  opportunity  of 
knowing  the  actual  condition  of  things  in  Mexico  than  these  strangers, 
some  of  whom  could  not  even  speak  the  language  of  the  country,  but  who 
allowed  their  own  bigotry  to  taint  their  judgment.  Senor  Frisbie,  an 
American  and  the  son  of  General  Frisbie,  who  spent  nearly  all  of  his  life 
in  Mexico,  informed  me  that,  on  a  Ward  Line  boat  for  New  York,  he 
met  the  wife  of  one  of  these  representatives,  who  was  himself  on  the 
boat,  returning  to  report  to  the  President,  and  that  this  lady  said  to  him, 
not  knowing  that  he  was  a  Catholic,  that  "  the  priests  and  nuns  should 
be  driven  out  of  Mexico."  Another  of  these  representatives  made  similar 
statements  in  Vera  Cruz  to  a  gentleman  whose  letter  I  have  in  my  posses- 
sion. But  all  that  is  neither  here  nor  there.  It  concerns  the  political 
situation,  which,  so  far  as  this  book  is  concerned,  is  no  affair  of  mine. 

Two  outside  influences  were  exerted,  and  have  been  exerted  for  years, 
to  the  injury  of  the  Catholic  Church  in  Mexico.  One  of  these  is  the 
influence  of  secret  societies  and  the  other  the  influence  of  a  section  of 
American  Protestantism. 

Concerning  the  influence  of  the  first,  the  following  editorial,  taken 
from  the  New  York  Times  of  November  8,  1914,  will  be  enlightening: 

"  The  reappearance  as  a  threatening  factor  in  Mexican  politics  of 
Scottish  Rite  Masonry  is  a  phenomenon  which  merits  a  word  of  present 

63 


64  THE  BOOK  OF  RED  AND  YELLOW 

comment.  In  1824,  with  the  very  beginning  of  modern  Mexico,  the  two 
principal  political  factions  were  allied  either  with  the  Scottish  or  York 
Rites  of  Masonry.  The  Scottish  Rite  had  grown  up  under  Spanish 
influence  and  was  all-powerful  until  our  first  diplomatic  representative  in 
the  young  republic,  Joel  Poinsett  of  South  Carolina,  remembered  now 
chiefly  as  the  botanist  who  gave  his  name  to  the  poinsetta,  founded  the 
York  Rite  purely  as  a  political  factor.  The  lodges  of  the  Yorkinos,  who 
were  much  less  exclusive  than  the  Escoseses,  multiplied  rapidly  and 
exerted  all  the  influence  of  the  various  branches  of  an  American  political 
machine.  Of  course,  Poinsett  was  not  authorized  by  our  Government  to 
meddle  in  Mexican  politics  or  to  extend  the  influence  of  Masonry  in 
Mexico,  and  his  imprudence  eventually  led  to  his  recall.  But  for  many 
years  Masonry  exerted  a  strong  factional  force  throughout  the  country, 
and  the  sudden  reappearance  of  the  Scottish  Rite,  in  a  pronunciamento 
against  the  United  States  Government  for  not  withdrawing  the  troops 
from  Vera  Cruz  without  conditions,  suggests  that  Masonry  may  have  been 
exerting  its  influence  quietly  in  the  upheavals  of  the  last  four  years. 

"  Of  course,  the  historic  Masonry  of  Mexico  took  on  its  political 
purpose  accidentally.  The  order  of  Scotch  Masons  was  largely  composed 
of  men  of  Spanish  blood,  the  aristocracy  of  the  country  which  had  thrown 
off  the  foreign  yoke,  put  its  first  Emperor  to  death,  and  asserted  itself  as 
a  self-governed  community.  They  worked  together  for  protection.  But 
Poinsett's  York  Grand  Lodge  was  founded  deliberately  with  political 
intent  and  inevitably  lent  fresh  political  strength  to  the  older  lodge.  The 
survival  or  the  revival  of  Masonry  as  a  force  in  politics  in  Mexico  is 
interesting,  and  may  be  important.  The  report  that  all  the  signers  of  the 
inflammatory  document  have  been  put  in  jail  indicates  that  the  authorities 
in  Mexico  City  do  not  view  favorably  the  intrusion  of  secret  societies  in 
politics." 

I  do  not,  in  publishing  the  above  editorial,  desire  to  make  charges 
against  the  rank  and  file  of  the  membership  of  the  American  Masonic 
body.  I  am  not  unaware  of  the  fact  that  Masonry  in  the  United  States  is 
considered  by  the  great  majority  of  its  members  as  nothing  more  than  a 
fraternal  or  social  organization ;  but  Masons  themselves  in  America  have 
recognized  the  fact  that  the  Masonic  body  all  over  the  world  does  not 
hold  the  same  ideals.  It  will  be  remembered  that  some  years  ago,  a  protest 
was  made  by  a  Masonic  body  in  Canada  to  the  English  Grand  Master  (at 
that  time  the  Prince  of  Wales,  who  afterward  became  King  Edward 
VII.)  against  the  establishment  in  Montreal  of  lodges  operating  under  a 
charter  from  the  Grand  Orient  of  France.  Their  objection  was  based 
upon  the  fact  that  such  lodges  were  anti-Christian,  while  Masonry  under 


THE  BOOK  OF  RED  AND   YELLOW  65 

British  jurisdiction  held  belief  in  God  to  be  a  fundamental  condition  for 
membership.  Their  protest  was  ineffectual,  for  the  foreign  lodges  were 
established,  and,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  exist  to-day.  It  will  also  be  remem- 
bered that  only  three  or  four  years  ago,  when  Montreal  was  preparing 
for  the  great  Eucharistic  Congress,  which  would  bring  to  the  city  Catholic 
prelates,  priests  and  laymen  from  all  over  the  world,  and  was,  as  a  matter 
of  fact,  the  largest  convention  the  city  was  ever  called  upon  to  handle,  it 
was  discovered  that  one  of  these  foreign  lodges  deliberately  planned  to 
direct  visiting  priests  to  houses  of  ill-fame  instead  of  to  respectable 
boarding-houses,  and  afterward  to  have  the  places  raided,  so  as  to  make 
it  appear  that  priests  had  chosen  such  residences  during  their  stay  at 
Montreal.  The  exposure  of  the  whole  plot  was  made  in  the  public  press  of 
Montreal.  If  proof  is  needed  that  American  Masons  know  that  universal 
Masonry  is  something  entirely  different  from  their  own  ideals,  it  is  found 
in  the  acknowledgment  of  the  British  and  American  lodges  themselves, 
whose  members  claim  openly  that  they  have  no  affiliation  with  what  we 
might  call  Latin  Masonry,  which  includes  the  Masonry  of  Mexico  and 
South  America.  I  have  talked  with  hundreds  of  American  Masons,  and 
every  one  has  the  same  statement  to  make,  that  Latin  Masons  would  not 
be  received  in  American  lodges.  However,  this  statement  is  not  entirely 
true,  though  those  who  make  it  believe  that  it  is.  Even  Latin  Masonry  is 
divided.  In  Italy,  where  Latin  Masonry  is  strong,  the  division  exists ; 
and  the  point  of  difference  is  the  question  of  political  activity  and  infi- 
delity. As  an  illustration,  it  may  be  remembered  that  when  Mr.  Theodore 
Roosevelt  visited  Rome  he  received  representatives  of  one  body  of  Italian 
Masons,  headed  by  Baron  Fava,  as  brothers.  Representatives  of  the 
other  had  no  such  recognition.  Now,  no  one  for  an  instant  dreams  that 
Theodore  Roosevelt,  Mason,  would  affiliate  himself  with  men  who  aim  at 
the  destruction  of  order  and  who  deny  the  existence  of  God,  any  more 
than  any  one  would  believe  that  William  H.  Taft,  Mason,  could  do  the 
same  thing.  There  are  numberless  American  Masons  who  have  not  only 
been  most  friendly  with  their  Catholic  fellow-citizens,  but  are  even  sin- 
cere admirers  of  the  Catholic  Church.  No  one  believes  that  these  men 
have  any  desire  to  see  her  influence  destroyed,  her  charities  broken  up, 
and  her  children  left  without  religious  direction  of  any  kind.  We  may 
safely  absolve  the  great  body  of  American  Masons  from  the  charge  of 
knowingly  injuring  the  Church  in  Mexico. 

Nevertheless,  it  is  true  that,  from  the  great  body  of  American  Masons, 
some  men  have  been  selected  who  are  in  sympathy  with  the  irreligious 
propaganda  of  Latin  Masonry ;  and  there  is  every  reason  to  believe  that, 
through  these  men,  Masonic  influence  has  wrought  injury  to  religion  in 
Mexico.    How  far  this  has  gone  no  one  can  tell,  but  that  representatives 


66  THE  BOOK.  OF  RED  AND  YELLOW 

of  the  United  States  have  fraternized  with  the  Masons  in  Mexico  is 
openly  charged  by  the  Mexicans  themselves.  I  have  a  letter  from  which 
this  remarkable  statement  is  taken :  "  When  the  Masons  in  Mexico  called 
on  United  States  Masons  to  get  us  out  of  Vera  Cruz,  I  knew,"  etc. 


What  evidence  my  informant  had  I  do  not  know.  Having  been  in 
Vera  Cruz  practically  from  the  beginning  of  American  occupation,  he 
was  in  a  position  to  learn  things  that  I  could  not  possibly  have  learned 
The  point  I  desire  to  make  is,  that  American  Masons,  viewing  their  society 
purely  as  a  fraternal  and  social  organization,  can  scarcely  blame  the 
Church  for  objecting  when  all  we  know  of  Masonry,  outside  of  British 
and  American  possessions,  is  that  the  fraternity  stands  before  the  people 
as  religion's  unqualified  and  unrelenting  enemy,  through  whose  influence 
murders,  robberies,  exilings  and  worse  have  been  perpetrated,  not  only 
in  Mexico,  but  also  in  Portugal.  It  is  a  recognized  fact  in  both  Italy  and 
France  that  Masonry  stands  for  irreligion  and  the  total  destruction  of  the 
Catholic  Church. 

In  Mexico,  though  Porfirio  Diaz  was  himself  a  Mason,  yet  during  his 
dictatorship  the  lodges  were  greatly  reduced  in  membership.  When 
Madero  came  into  power  there  was  a  campaign  for  active  reorganization. 
This  campaign  sought  recruits  not  only  among  the  middle  class,  but  also 
among  the  workingmen.  Before  the  revolution  entered  cities,  the  lodges 
fiercely  attacked  the  Catholic  religion,  through  calumnies  from  press  and 
platform.  Their  members  served  as  spies  and  informers,  and  even 
exposed  the  hiding-places  of  the  priests  and  of  the  sacred  vessels.  This 
is  not  a  guess.    It  is  an  admitted  fact  all  over  Mexico. 

El  Liberal,  the  official  organ  of  Carranza,  can  be  quoted  as  an  authority 
upon  this  point. 

It  charges  that  the  Church  in  Mexico  wants  American  intervention, 
in  spite  of  the  fact  that  two  archbishops  have  issued  letters  as  patriotic 
as  any  statements  ever  given  out  in  Mexico,  and  in  spite  of  the  fact  that 
not  one  of  the  churchmen  who  are  refugees  here  would  even  consider  the 
idea  of  upholding  intervention.  The  Mexican  bishops  and  priests  are 
Mexicans  and  patriotic  men. 

"  It  is  indispensable,"  says  El  Liberal,  "that  to  accomplish  our  deter- 
mination a  strong  call  be  made  to  the  followers  of  truth  to  come  to  the 
line  to  fight  for  victory  or  death,  for  liberty  and  fraternity  in  the  temples 
consecrated  by  triumphs  and  inexplicable  abnegations  —  the  lodges. 
.  .  .  We  Mexican  lovers  of  liberty,  equality  and  fraternity,  let  us 
hasten  to  join  the  army  of  the  defense  of  these  ideals.  Let  us  work  in 
our  lodges  toward  its  realization." 


THE  BOOK  OF  RED  AND  YELLOW  67 

When  I  charge  that  a  section  of  American  Protestantism  has  played 
an  evil  part  in  the  Mexican  persecution,  I  do  not  intend  to  charge  my 
Protestant  fellow-citizens  in  general  with  the  crime.  There  are  some 
thirty  million  people  in  the  United  States  who  have  allied  themselves  in 
some  way  with  Protestantism.  Most  of  these  meet  their  Catholic  fellow- 
citizens  socially  and  in  a  business  way  every  day.  They  live  at  peace 
with  them,  and  they  ask  for  nothing  better  than  that  this  condition 
continue.  They  are  willing  to  grant  to  others  the  liberty  of  conscience 
which  they  desire  for  themselves.  They  know  their  Catholic  fellow- 
citizens.  They  have  confidence  in  them.  Many  of  their  families  are  allied 
with  Catholic  families  by  marriage  or  ties  of  blood.  They  contribute  to 
Catholic  charities,  and  often  generously  at  that.  They  believe  the  Catholic 
Church  has  a  mission  in  the  United  States,  and  they  look  upon  the  Church 
as  having  given  a  notable  contribution  to  the  peace  and  prosperity  of  this 
Republic.  In  American  wars  they  have  fought  side  by  side  with  Catholic 
soldiers,  as  to-day  they  work  side  by  side  with  Catholic  men  and  women 
in  the  daily  duties  of  life.  It  is  far  from  my  thought  to  charge  such  men 
and  women  with  complicity  in  the  outrages  perpetrated  in  Mexico. 

Still  there  is  another  section,  representing  the  uneducated  and  bigoted 
sectarians  among  Protestants.  Nothing  less  than  the  total  destruction  of 
the  Catholic  Church  in  America  would  satisfy  them,  and  to  bring  about 
such  a  result  they  would  not  hesitate  at  all  to  revive  the  iniquities  of  past 
ages,  when  religion  was  so  bound  up  with  the  politics  of  nations  that  in 
her  name  thousands  were  sent  to  their  death.  This  section  has  many 
papers  and  magazines  devoted  to  the  cause  of  religious  enmity.  One  of 
these  papers  has  a  circulation  of  a  million  and  a  half.  Decent  Protestants 
have  protested  against  this  situation.  They  have  been  horrified  at  the  vile 
calumnies  these  organs  of  bigotry  fling  at  the  Church  and  her  priesthood. 
Their  protest  has  been  voiced  time  and  again  by  such  men  as  Dr.  Wash- 
ington Gladden.  The  secular  papers  will  not  print  their  tirades,  but  still 
they  go  on  with  their  work.  They  scatter  their  infamous  libels.  They 
call  the  Pope  "  the  Chief  of  White  Slavers."  They  brand  priests  as 
monsters  of  iniquity.  They  declare  our  religious  houses  to  be  dens  of 
prostitution.  They  put  the  mark  of  shame  upon  pure  and  virtuous 
Catholic  womanhood,  a  mark  which  the  worst  libertine  is  willing  to 
declare,  from  his  own  experience,  to  be  notoriously  undeserved.  The 
papers  printing  such  libels  freely  circulate  through  our  mails  at  second- 
class  rates.  Consequently  they  are  virtually  subsidized  by  the  Government 
and  Catholics  themselves  are  taxed  to  uphold  them.  The  Dominion  of 
Canada  has  refused  permission  to  circulate  such  papers  through  its  post- 
offices,  or  even  through  other  carriers.  We  permit  it  all  in  the  name  of  a 
free  press ;  but  it  is  not  liberty  of  the  press  that  we  are  granting,  but  the 
beginning  of  unbridled  license.         jl. 


68  THE  BOOK  OF  RED  AND  YELLOW 

The  vile  calumnies  of  these  people  have  been  circulated  in  Mexico. 
Their  lurid  tales  have  been  printed  in  Spanish,  with  the  intention  of 
swaying  Mexican  Catholics  from  their  allegiance  to  the  Church.  They 
have  preached  in  Mexico  through  Protestant  missionaries  that  the  United 
States  is  a  Protestant  nation,  but  Protestant  in  their  own  sense ;  so  that 
whatever  is  done  against  the  Catholic  Church  surely  meets  with  approval. 
A  court  of  the  Guardians  of  Liberty,  the  bigoted  society  which  has 
General  Miles  for  its  leader,  sent  to  Villa  the  following  letter : 

"  Alamo  Court,  No.  1,  Guardians  of  Liberty  of  Texas,  a  patriotic 
organization  of  American  citizens,  with  courts  throughout  the  entire 
United  States,  which  has  for  its  purpose  the  maintaining  of  the  United 
States  Constitution  and  the  complete  separation  of  Church  and  State, 
desires  to  express  to  you,  and  other  patriotic  Mexicans,  our  hearty 
approval  of  your  actions  and  the  great  good  and  service  you  have  and  are 
rendering  your  people  and  the  country. 

"  We  would  especially  commend  your  actions  in  ridding  your  country 
of  the  basest  of  human  vultures,  the  Catholic  priesthood.  Whenever 
women  are  forced  to  secretly  confess  to  a  man  who  has  never  married, 
and  knows  nothing  of  the  sacredness  of  woman  or  of  home,  it  is  but 
natural  for  immorality  to  exist,  and  until  this  practice  is  stopped  it  is 
impossible  to  raise  up  a  liberty-loving,  intelligent,  patriotic,  moral  gen- 
eration. 

"  Again  assuring  you  of  our  appreciation  of  your  invaluable  worth  to 
your  country,  and  trusting  that  you  may  continue  your  good  work  until 
the  people  of  your  country  are  freed,  indeed,  from  'the  root  of  the  trouble, 
the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  in  the  language  of  the  patriot,  we  would 
exclaim,  '  Viva  Mexico  by  Villa !'  " 

This  was  openly  offering  the  encouragement  which  we  very  well 
knew  had  been  for  a  long  time  extended  secretly.  All  of  these  things 
are  done  in  the  name  of  American  Protestantism,  and  done  in  such  a  way 
as  to  make  American  Protestants  responsible  for  them.  Protestant 
missions  in  Mexico  have  their  share  of  the  blame  for  the  persecutions. 
For  years  they  have  been  working,  but  their  achievements  have  been 
practically  nil.  By  this  time  people  ought  to  know  from  experience  that 
the  Latin  is  a  Catholic  or  nothing.  When  he  loses  his  allegiance  to  the 
Church  he  becomes  an  infidel  or  an  atheist.  Such1  a  being  as  an 
indifferentist  can  hardly  find  room  to  breathe  among  Latin  people.  The 
Latin  must  be  one  thing  or  the  other.  Those  who  are  swayed  from  the 
Catholic  Faith  by  Protestant  missionary  efforts  land  in  the  ranks  of  open 
infidelity,  enemies  to  all  religion.     What  triumph  is  it  for  Protestantism 


THE  BOOK  OF  RED  AND  YELLOW  69 

that  France  persecuted  the  Catholic  Church,  when  Viviani  declared  that 
his  task  was  to  "  blot  out  the  stars  from  heaven"?  What  triumph  did 
Protestantism  gain  from  the  new  birth  of  atheism  in  Portugal?  If 
Protestants  believe  that  the  Catholic  Church  is  Christian  at  all,  why  do 
they  follow  a  plan  which  they  know  will  destroy  Christianity  with  the 
Church?  Can  any  one  answer  these  questions?  To  me  they  are  mys- 
teries beyond  solution.  In  Mexico  former  Protestant  ministers  are  to-day 
"  generals,  colonels  and  captains."  The  Provisional  President,  Guiterrez, 
is  said  to  be  an  ex-Protestant  minister.  The  revolutionary  governors  of 
two  states  were  Protestant  ministers.  Almost  to  a  man  have  these'  former 
salaried  officials  of  American  Protestant  missionary  societies  entered  the 
ranks  of  revolutionists. 


VIII. 


A    LAST    WORD. 


This  story  I  have  written  down  as  I  received  it  from  the  mouths  of 
eye-witnesses.  I  am  well  aware  of  the  fact  that  due  allowance  must  be 
made  for  natural  resentment  in  those  who  were  the  victims  of  injustice 
toward  their  persecutors.  I  have  no  objection  to  the  reader  making  his 
own  allowance  in  this  regard,  and  making  the  allowance  as  generously  as 
he  pleases.  There  still  remain  the  great  facts  of  the  case:  the  murder, 
exile,  imprisonment,  rape  and  robbery  of  the  innocent.  Nations  often 
have  in  history  been  built  on  a  foundation  of  crime,  but  we  all  had  hope 
that  the  enlightened  twentieth  century  would  have  nothing  to  add  to  the 
evil  record.  In  making  your  allowances  will  the  reader  please  weigh 
these,  some  findings  of  my  own,  to  the  evidence? 

First.  In  all  my  conversations  with  the  refugees,  lay  and  clerical,  I 
met  but  few  who  were  not  enlightened  men  and  women,  many  highly 
educated,  all  sober  and  serious,  some  speaking  many  languages,  most  of 
them  graduates  of  colleges  and  universities  —  in  short,  the  kind  of  people 
the  average  American  citizen  likes  to  know,  and  feels  honored  in  knowing. 

Second.  Among  these  refugees  I  found  but  one  who  disliked  Mexico 
and  would  not  return  there  under  any  circumstance.  In  justice  to  him, 
however,  I  must  state  that  he  was  not  a  Mexican  citizen,  and  that  he  had 
private  reasons  of  his  own  for  the  dislike,  reasons  which  any  red-blooded 
man  would  justify  sentimentally,  if  not  logically.  All  the  others  loved 
Mexico  and  wanted  nothing  better  than  the  opportunity  to  return  to  their 
native  land.  They  desire  peace  and  the  reign  of  law.  Their  passionate 
attachment  to  their  country  might  well  be  envied  by  our  more  matter-of- 
fact  sort  of  patriotism. 

Third.  Not  one  Mexican  with  whom  I  conversed  desired  the  inter- 
vention of  the  United  States,  if  such  intervention  meant  the  loss  to  his 
country  of  her  independence.  The  utmost  limit  of  their  concession  to  the 
necessity  of  intervention  was  for  that  kind  of  intervention  which  would 
guarantee  beforehand  the  integrity  of  their  nation,  and  her  freedom  as 
soon  as  peace  was  restored  and  a  just  and  stable  government  set  up. 
They  all  believed  that  the  United  States  could  well  be  a  sister,  but  never 
a  successful  stepmother  to  Mexico. 

Fourth.  I  found  that  every  one  of  these  refugees  had  lost  all  sus- 
picion of  American  motives,  even  though  condemning  what  they  consid- 


70 


THE  BOOK  OF  RED  AND  YELLOW  71 

ered  our  "  mistakes "  in  dealing  with  Mexican  problems.  They  had 
learned  that  our  motives,  that  is,  the  motives  of  the  great  mass  of  the 
American  people,  were  good. 

Fifth.  The  charitable  and  fraternal  action  of  American  Catholics 
deeply  touched  the  refugees,  and,  learning  of  the  liberty  of  conscience 
enjoyed  in  this  Republic,  their  admiration  increased  with  their  gratitude. 
I  could  not  help  thinking  that  this  argues  more  for  the  prosperity  of 
future  trade  relations  than  the  cruel  policy  of  concession-grabbers,  whose 
money  and  influence  have  deluged  Mexico  with  innocent  blood.  A  founda- 
tion is  now  laid  for  a  brotherly  feeling  between  Americans  and  Mexicans. 
Love  will  build  up  what  cupidity  has  destroyed. 

On  these  things,  as  well  as  on  the  facts  before  presented,  let  me  base 
my  last  word  about  Mexico  to  my  fellow-citizens,  Protestant  and  Catholic. 

There  is  need  in  the  world  to-day  of  an  enlightened  nation,  honoring 
God,  loving  peace  and  presenting  ideals  of  true  liberty,  whose  very 
existence  will  be  a  rebuke  to  lawlessness,  and  whose  greatest  message  is 
the  old  message  of  faith,  hope  and  charity.  There  is  need  in  this  Western 
world  of  a  great  nation,  whose  glory  is  not  in  conquest  by  arms,  or  even 
conquest  in  commerce,  but  rather  in  a  spirit  of  justice  and  fraternity 
which  permeates  all  its  people.  We  all  think  that  the  United  States  comes 
nearer  both  ideals  than  any  nation  yet  born  to  the  earth ;  but,  alas !  her 
sister  nations  on  this  Western  hemisphere  look  at  her  with  suspicion  not 
unmixed  with  fear.  To  them  she  is  "  The  Colossus  of  the  North,"  whose 
sons  come  only  to  extort  riches',  while  scorning  their  people,  berating  their 
convictions,  mocking  their  religion,  and  often  fomenting  bloody  discords. 
Have  we  any  idea  how  deeply  many  of  our  fellow-citizens  have  gone  in 
encouraging  and  paying  for  the  frequent  revolutions  of  which  we  speak 
so  often  with  such  contempt? 

We,  who  love  to  think  that  we  regard  the  rights  of  conscience  above 
all  other  rights,  do  we  reflect  on  the  fact  that,  in  our  name  and  to  the 
flaunting  of  our  flag,  we  send  to  the  neighbors  whose  good  will  we  desire 
to  cultivate,  men  who  tell  them  that  their  ideals  of  centuries  must  be 
abandoned,  that  their  methods  of  worshiping  God  are  idolatrous,  that 
their  own  sons  in  the  clergy  are  moral  lepers,  that  their  own  daughters 
who  have  adopted  the  religious  state  are  dupes  and  prostitutes,  that  their 
shrines  are  abominations,  that  their  love  for  God  is  a  sham  ? 

Do  we  ever  reflect  that  Spanish  civilization  has  had  a  more  difficult 
task  than  "  Anglo-Saxon  "  civilization  in  the  Americas,  in  that  it  was 
"  handicapped  "  by  the  inexorable  Faith  which  forced  the  conqueror  to 
preserve  and  not  destroy  the  conquered,  and,  thus  limited,  could  not 
colonise   one-tenth  as  much  as  attempt  to   civilise?     Do  we  give  the 


72  THE  BOOK  OF  RED  AND  YELLOW 

Spanish  conqueror  of  Indian  nations  credit  for  the  fact  that,  when  he 
brought  his  Church  with  him  he  was  hampering  the  exercise  of  his  own 
power,  by  religion's  demand  to  give  the  Indian  the  right  to  live?  Does 
he  not  sometimes  stop  to  think  what  would  be  the  condition  even  of  these 
United  States  had  the  conquerors  here  preserved  the  Indian  to  the 
extent  of  outnumbering  the  whites  ten  to  one  ?  Could  we  expect  anything 
better,  under  such  conditions,  than  Mexico  has,  and  some  other  Spanish 
republics  have,  to-day? 

Let  us  be  fair.  Spain  preserved  where  we  destroyed.  With  a  con- 
stantly diminishing  Indian  population,  wards  of  the  State,  having  schools 
and  colleges  for  all  who  wish  to  enter  them,  what  one  of  our  Indians  has 
ever  shown  the  governmental  and  military  genius  of  a  Diaz,  the  intelligent 
bravery  of  a  Mejia,  the  surgical  ability  of  a  Urrutia,  the  philosophical 
knowledge  of  a  Munguia,  the  science  of  a  Carrillo  y  Azcona,  the  theo- 
logical training  of  an  Alarcon,  the  poetic  fire  of  an  Altamirano,  the 
political  acumen  of  an  Estagnol,  the  legal  and  journalistic  career  of 
Sanchez  Santos,  the  artistic  talents  of  Panduro  and  Velazquez  ?  Indians  ? 
Yes,  all  Indians,  pure-blooded  Indians.  Name  those  of  ours  whose 
genius  has  made  such  marks  on  the  history  of  our  country.  Sitting  Bull  ? 
Geronimo  ?  Alas !  such  a  beginning  speaks  badly  for  an  ending.  Think 
this  over  before  you  condemn  Spanish  civilization  in  the  Americas.  We 
have  little  to  show  for  one  hundred  years  of  "  Anglo-Saxon  "  attempts 
to  uplift  our  Indians.  Yet  the  Indians  of  Mexico  have  produced  men  of 
letters,  artists,  statesmen,  soldiers,  scientists,  learned  bishops  and  priests — 
men  of  genius.  But  for  all  of  that  Spain's  government  was  not  respon- 
sible. The  credit  belongs  to  the  maligned  Church,  which  stood  out,  with 
Fray  Las  Casas,  Fray  Martin  of  Valencia,  and  Bishop  Juan  de  Zumarraga, 
for  the  rights  of  the  natives,  and  sacrificed  their  entire  lives  for  their 
conversion,  civilization  and  protection.  What  if  there  still  remain  some 
of  the  ancient  superstitions  ?  Have  we,  the  enlightened,  gotten  rid  entirely 
of  ours?  What  of  the  Wall  street  broker  who  still  trusts  the  clairvoyant 
before  his  brains,  who  will  not  fling  his  hat  on  a  hotel  bed  because  the 
action  is  supposed  to  be  unlucky  ?  What  of  the  thirteen-at-table  nonsense, 
or  the  fear  of  beginning  a  work  on  Friday?  The  missionaries  of  Mexico 
did  not  transplant  Spaniards  to  Mexican  soil  to  grow  a  garden  without 
seeding  and  to  dispossess  the  wild  beauty  already  there.  They  seeded 
the  ground  anew,  and  grafted  religion  and  civilization  to  plants  their 
colonies  already  had.  Thus  they  worked  to  gradually  clear  off  the  ancient 
superstitions.  We  tried  to  burn  off  our  Indians'  superstitions,  and  our 
Indians  went  fast  with  them.  We  transplanted  England  and  Ireland, 
Scotland  and  Germany  here ;  but  the  Indians  who  yet  live  have  still  their 


THE  BOOK  OF  RED  AND  YELLOW  73 

superstitions.  They  are  dying,  in  many  cases,  with  them.  It's  a  different 
story,  that  of  Mexico  and  that  of  our  country ;  but,  for  the  ancient  people 
of  both,  those  of  Mexico  have  the  greater  reason  for  gratitude. 

When  Sir  Lionel  Carden,  the  British  Ambassador  to  Mexico  under 
Huerta,  left  this  country  for  England,  he  expressed  sympathy  for  the 
"  decent  people  "  of  Mexico.  Do  we  even  think  of  these  "  decent  people  " 
when  we  give  our  unqualified  sympathy  to  hordes  of  bandits,  whose  past 
records  alone  would  be  prima  facie  presumption  of  guilt  in  any  court  of 
justice  in  our  country?  Are  "liberators"  made  of  such  material?  For 
two  generations  have  the  old  colleges  and  universities  of  Mexico  been 
closed  and  new  ones  substituted ;  yet  to-day  we  find  Mexico's  best  people 
sending  their  children,  almost  by  stealth,  to  the  few  religious  schools  that 
have  stolen  back,  and,  when  that  is  not  possible,  to  schools  of  the  same 
kind  in  Spain  and  the  United  States.  Francisco  Madero  himself  was  a 
pupil  of  Mt.  St.  Mary's  College  in  Maryland ;  Carranza  a  constant  and 
friendly  visitor  to  the  College  of  the  Jesuits  in  Saltillo.  The  man  in  whom 
both  our  Government  and  our  people  placed  its  highest  hopes  for  peace 
in  Mexico  was  the  Christian  De  la  Barra ;  and  next  to  him  the  Christian 
convert,  Gamboa. 

Susan  Hale,  in  her  history  of  Mexico,  says :  "  It  is  evident  that  what 
is  needed  is  good  government,  good  religion  and  good  education."  But 
we  have,  alas !  by  our  own  greed  and  our  prejudice,  made  government  a 
thing  to  be  fought  for  by  robbers ;  of  religion  a  thing  to  be  held  up  to 
scorn  and  insult ;  of  the  old  schools,  that  once  were  glorious,  barracks 
and  ruins.  We  listen  and  applaud  when  the  "  liberals  "  of  every  camp 
tell  us  that  the  Church  is  responsible  for  poverty,  ignorance  and  lawless- 
ness ;  but  we  do  not  listen  to  the  Church  which  gave  to  Mexico  all  the 
civilization  she  possesses,  when  she  makes  this  gentle  plaint,  over  the 
noise  of  murder,  debauchery  and  lust :  You  blame  me  for  poverty,  yet 
you  took  from  me  the  endowments  for  my  hospitals,  my  orphanages,  my 
countless  works  of  mercy.  You  blame  me  for  ignorance,  when  you 
closed  my  schools,  stole  my  colleges  and  suppressed  my  universities 
which  first  lit  the  torch  of  learning  among  this  people.  You  say  I  have 
added  nothing  to  science  and  art,  but  you  destroyed  the  art  I  brought  with 
me,  burned  my  books  and  scattered  the  results  of  my  labor  for  science 
to  the  four  winds  of  heaven.  You  blame  me  for  ignorance  after  forbid- 
ding me  for  fifty  years  to  teach.  You  blame  me  for  lawlessness,  when  you 
destroyed  my  missions  among  a  peaceful  and  thriving  Indian  population, 
and  gave,  in  my  place  to  the  people,  the  thirty  pieces  of  silver  with  which 
you  bribed  them  to  murder  their  fellows.  You  took  the  cross  out  of  their 
hands  to  replace  it  with  a  torch  and  a  gun.     Show  me  one  good  thing  in 


74  THE  BOOK  OF  RED  AND  YELLOW 

Mexico  I  did  not  give  you.  Show  me  one  genius  for  whom  I  was  not 
responsible.  Show  me  one  step  in  advance  I  did  not  help  you  to  take. 
Cut  away  from  your  country  all  that  I  put  in  it,  and  see  what  remains. 
You  may  thrust  me  out,  exile  my  bishops,  murder  my  priests,  again  steal 
my  schools,  desecrate  my  sanctuaries  and  my  virgins,  but  you  can  not  blot 
out  history,  you  can  not  erase  the  mark  I  have  left  on  you  —  not  in  a 
century  of  centuries. 

If  the  United  States  is  to  be  the  friend  and  sister  of  Mexico,  to  the 
advantage  of  both,  our  citizens  must  rid  themselves  of  a  multitude  of 
inherited  prejudices,  and  substitute  a  spirit  of  understanding  for  a  spirit 
of  greed.  There  is  more  to  be  had  in  Mexico  than  oil  and  mining  con- 
cessions :  there  is  the  good  will  that  makes  such  concessions  a  logical 
consequence  of  a  desire  for  help  and  a  manifestation  of  deep  gratitude. 
I  have  no  wish  to  condemn  business  enterprise,  but  it  is  poor  business 
that  depends  for  success  on  machine  guns.  If  powder  and  ball  are  the 
things  we  want  to  dispose  of  to  Mexico,  the  question  arises :  which 
country  is  the  less  civilized,  the  one  that  sells  or  the  one  that  buys?  We 
scorn  to  learn  the  language  of  Mexico,  yet  we  expect  to  talk  to  her 
people  so  that  they  will  understand.  Pardon  me,  but  do  they  understand 
when  we  talk  from  the  black  mouths  of  cannon? 

Mexicans  do  need  "  good  government,"  and  we  have  the  opportunity 
now  of  giving  it  to  them,  not  by  imposing  our  views  upon  them,  not  by 
taking  away  their  independence,  but  by  telling  them  fairly  and  honestly 
that  we  will  help  no  government  set  up  by  thieves,  nor  any  government 
that  is  not  founded  on  the  principles  of  equal  justice  to  all.  Mexico  can 
not  get  along  without  a  big  brother  yet ;  but  a  big  brother  who  lets  his 
little  brother  fall  into  a  well  to  drown  is  a  poor  excuse  for  a  brother 
at  all. 

Yes,  Mexico  needs  "  good  religion."  She  has  the  Mother  Church  of 
Christendom  in  her  midst,  but  chained  and  bound  by  laws  that  were 
intended  to  kill  her.  But  Mexico's  history  shows  that  she  will  accept  no 
other  religion.  American  Protestantism  has  tried  for  fifty  years  to  sup- 
plant the  Catholic  Ghurch,  but  has  not  succeeded  in  doing  any  more  than 
the  work  of  enlarging  the  number  of  atheists  and  indifferentists.  These 
missions  are  making  no  friends  for  us,  but  rather  causing  resentment 
against  us.  Their  very  presence  is  taken  as  an  insult  by  the  enlightened 
people,  who  can  not  but  think  that  we  regard  them  as  heathen.  Unbind 
the  Church  of  their  Fathers,  the  Church  of  Las  Casas ;  give  her  again 
the  right  to  teach  and  to  preach ;  let  her  build  her  missions  anew  with  a 
guarantee  that  they  shall  stand,  not  as  relics  of  past  greatness,  but  as 
living,  acting  agencies  for  the  uplift  of  the  Indians  and  their  advance  to 
greater  things. 


THE  BOOK  OF  RED  AND  YELLOW  75 

Yes,  Mexico  needs  "  good  education."  Then  make  every  educational 
work  free,  under  democratic  and  wise  laws.  See  that  the  teacher  is  not 
penalized,  his  work  destroyed,  and  his  endowments  seized  by  rapacious 
banditti.  Give  help  to  every  effort  for  the  instruction  of  the  masses. 
Follow  Washington's  advice  to  encourage  the  means  of  education.  It 
works  well  with  us;  why  should  it  be  disregarded  in  Mexico?  Would 
we  in  these  United  States  think  of  confiscating  the  hundreds  of  millions 
of  dollars  invested  in  private  educational  endowments  for  the  universi- 
ties of  Harvard  or  Yale  or  Chicago  or  Princeton,  because  they  are  pri- 
vate and  not  state  institutions ;  would  we  think  of  killing  off  the 
endowments  of  human  devotion  and  self-sacrifice  of  Washington,  George- 
town and  Notre  Dame,  because  they  are  religious  institutions?  Then 
why  give  approval  by  a  pleased  look  or  a  smirking  silence,  when  these 
same  things  are  done  in  Mexico  by  bandits  with  American  weapons  in 
their  hands? 

Mexico  lies  prostrate  to-day.  Anarchy  reigns.  Religion  is  over  half 
destroyed.  Greed  steals  the  very  school  books  from  the  children.  Capital 
is  fleeing.  Labor  gladly  grasps  a  gun,  and  works  at  killing  for  pay. 
Virgins  put  on  mourning  for  the  worse  than  death  that  has  befallen  them. 
The  country  lifts  her  head  to  look  at  us  with  eyes  that  are  more  than 
half  reproachful,  but,  thank  God,  there  is  also  hope  in  them.  We  have 
our  opportunity,  one  that,  taken  now  at  the  flood,  leads  on  to  better  than 
fortune.  All  South  America,  the  South  America  we  want  to  win  to  our 
side,  the  South  America  we  need,  is  watching  us,  to  see  if  our  good  offices 
must  be  bought  by  gold,  by  the  sacrifice  of  hallowed  and  holy  traditions. 
This  hour  is  the  hour  full  of  fate  for  us.  Shall  we  grasp  the  full  measure 
of  its  pregnant  possibilities? 


The  Speech  of  the  Silent  Man 

A    REPLY   TO    MR.  JOHN    LIND 

When  a  silent  man  puts  his  thoughts  into  language,  the  world  expects 
something.  When  that  silent  man  happens  to  have  been  the  Governor  of 
a  State  and  the  trusted  personal  representative  of  the  ruler  of  what  we 
believe  to  be  the  greatest  nation  on  earth,  we  expect  something  of  tre- 
mendous importance.  When  that  silent  man,  who  had  been  a  Governor, 
etc.,  has  a  wise  face  to  match  his  silence,  as  becometh  a  University  Regent, 
we  expect,  when  he  speaks,  to  shed  new  light  on  any  question,  of  sufficient 
"  pith  and  moment  "  to  wring  speech  out  of  him. 

In  all  these  things  has  Mr.  John  Lind  disappointed  us.  The  public  has 
been  devoured  with  curiosity  regarding  his  report  to  the  President  on  the 
Mexican  crisis.  Attempts  have  been  made,  even  in  Congress,  to  find  out 
what  the  report  contained;  but  the  attempts  failed.  Mr.  Lind  has  been 
importuned  to  speak,  but  he  has  spoken  only  on  private  occasions,  or  at. 
semi-private  banquets  with  all  reporters  barred.  But  at  last  Mr.  Lind 
has  given  his  views  to  the  world.  He  has  taken  his  time  about  it,  pre- 
sumably so  that  it  might  be  understood  they  were  the  result  of  deep 
study  and  thought.  Months  and  months  have  elapsed  since  he  returned 
from  Mexico,  and  only  now  (December,  1914)  has  he  made  his  views 
public.  In  The  Bellman  of  December  5,  and  again  in  the  same  magazine  of 
December  12,  Mr.  Lind  tells  what  he  thinks  of  Mexico  and  her  people. 
I  have  read  the  articles,  and  after  reading  them  have  put  them  down  with 
anything  but  a  feeling  of  satisfaction.  It  would  have  been  better  for  Mr. 
Lind  to  have  maintained  his  dignified  silence.  "  The  mountain  was  in 
labor  and  produced  a  mouse."  No,  that  is  not  exactly  the  case.  The 
mouse  was  produced  all  right ;  but  the  mountain  was  only  a  mole  hill, 
and  the  mole  hill  itself  is  now  nothing  more  than  a  mirage. 

Mr.  Lind's  article  quite  naturally  divides  itself  into  two  parts :  one 
dealing  with  the  historic  side,  and  the  other  giving  what  might  be  called 
the  personal  side,  because  it  gives  Mr.  Lind's  own  personal  opinions  upon 
the  situation.    I  am  going  to  take  up  both  sides  separately. 

THE  HISTORICAL  SIDE. 

The  historical  part  of  Mr.  Lind's  article  is  absolutely  worthless ;  first, 
because  it  is  not  Mr.  Lind's  at  all,  and,  secondly,  because  it  is  not  true. 
Most  of  it  is  taken,  with  only  a  half  attempt  at  paraphrasing,  from  an 
article  written  by  E.  B.  Tylor,  D.C.L.,  LL.D.,  F.R.S.,  for  the  Encyclopedia 

76 


THE  BOOK  OF  RED  AND  YELLOW 


77 


Britannica,  and  which  was  published  in  the  ninth  edition,  A.  D.  1888, 
Volume  16,  pp.  210  to  213.  Of  course,  there  is  absolutely  no  reason  why 
Mr.  Lind  should  not  have  consulted  an  Encyclopedia  to  verify  his  original 
research,  or  his  own  studies ;  but  it  is  absolutely  puerile  for  a  man  who 
avowedly  poses  as  an  authority  on  Mexico,  after  having  spent  months  in 
that  country  on  one  of  the  most  important  missions  within  the  gift  of  the 
American  Government,  to  take  practically  all  his  facts  from  an  Encyclo- 
pedia, and  even,  in  many  cases,  borrow  the  very  language  of  the  book 
itself.  Any  schoolboy  can  copy  an  article  from  an  Encyclopedia;  but  if 
he  attempted  to  hand  in  such  an  article,  even  paraphrased,  to  an  exam- 
ining board,  his  youth  could  scarcely  save  him  from  censure.  Mr.  Lind  is 
no  youth.  He  is  no  schoolboy,  but  he  evidently  has  lost  none  of  the  school- 
boy tricks.  I  select  a  few  lines  from  Dr.  Tylor  and  a  few  lines  from  Mr. 
Lind,  to  show  the  deadly  parallel : 


Mr.  Lind  : 

"  Below  the  king  was  a  numerous  and 
powerful  class  of  nobles." 

"  A  rich  and  powerful  merchant  class." 

"  Great  estates  were  owned  by  the 
crown." 

"  Slavery  existed,  but  in  a  rather  mild 
form.  The  children  of  slaves  were  born 
free." 

"  There  was  a  Supreme  Court  for  the 
cognizance  of  law  appeals,  located  in  the 
palace,  in  the  city  of  Mexico.  There  were 
inferior  tribunals  in  the  principal  cities, 
over  each  of  which  a  Supreme  Judge 
presided.  These  judges  held  office  for 
life,  and  could  not  be  removed  even  by 
the  king.  Their  decisions  in  criminal 
cases  were  final.  Lands  were  set  apart 
for  the  maintenance  of  these  judicial 
officers.  They  appointed  and  supervised 
the  actions  of  the  subordinate  magis- 
trates, and  revised  their  judgments.  In 
fact,  nothing  gives  a  higher  idea  of  the 
elaborate  civilization  of  Mexico  than 
this  judicial  system,  which  culminated  in 
a  general  court  presided  over  by  the 
king." 

"The  laws  and  records  of  the  court 
were  set  down  in  picture-writing." 

"  The  criminal  code  was  very  severe. 
Fraud,  the  removal  of  landmarks,  and 
adultery,  were  punished  by  having  the 
offender's  head  crushed  between  two 
stones,  or  cutting  out  the  heart." 


Dr.  Tylor: 

"  Below  the  king  was  a  numerous  and 

powerful  class  of  nobles." 

"  A  rich  and  powerful  merchant  class." 
"  The  greatest  estates  belonged  to  the 

king." 

"  Other  classes  of  slaves  were  mildly 
treated,  and  their  children  were  born 
free." 

"  The  Supreme  Courts  of  law  formed 
part  of  the  palace,  and  there  were  tri- 
bunals in  the  principal  cities,  over  each  of 
which  presided  a  Supreme  Judge,  who 
was  irremovable  and  whose  criminal  de- 
cisions not  even  the  king  might  reverse. 
He  appointed  the  lower  judges  and 
heard  appeals  from  them.  Lands  were 
set  apart  for  the  maintenance  of  judges, 
and,  indeed,  nothing  gives  a  higher  idea 
of  the  elaborate  civilization  of  Mexico 
than  this  judicial  system,  which  culmi- 
nated in  the  general  court  and  council  of 
state,  presided  over  by  the  king." 


"  The  laws  and  records  of  suits  were 
set  down  in  picture-writing." 

"  The  criminal  laws  were  of  extreme 
severity.  Fraud,  removing  landmarks, 
adultery,  etc.,  which  differed  as  to 
whether  the  criminal  had  his  heart  cut 
out  on  the  altar,  his  head  crushed  be- 
tween two  stones,  etc." 


The  above  are  only  a  few  selections.    I  could  go  on  and  make  as  many 
more ;  but  any  reader  who  desires  to  see  the  deadly  parallel  for  himself, 


78  THE  BOOK  OF  RED  AND  YELLOW 

need  only  read  over  the  historical  part  of  Mr.  Lind's  article  and  then  Dr. 
Tylor's  paper  in  the  Britannica.  How  much  of  an  authority  Mr.  John 
Lind  is  on  the  history  of  Mexico  can  now  be  judged  very  fairly. 

It  is  bad  enough  to  engage  in  literary  piracy,  but  to  steal  what  is 
untrue  is  many  times  worse,  and  unforgivably  stupid.  Stealing  diamonds 
is  bad,  but  stealing  paste  diamonds,  not  knowing  that  they  are  paste,  must 
be  very  unsatisfactory  to  the  thief.  That  is  about  the  position  Mr.  Lind 
is  in.  Dr.  Edward  B.  Tylor  was  an  Englishman,  born  in  1832.  In  1856, 
or  when  he  was  twenty-four  years  of  age,  he  went  to  Cuba,  and,  having 
met  an  ethnologist  there,  he  proceeded  to  Mexico  with  him.  He  became 
interested  in  Mexico  through  that  visit,  and  wrote  a  book,  which  he 
published  in  1861.  I  take  this  information  about  Dr.  Tylor  from  the 
Britannica's  latest  edition.  I  merely  wish  the  reader  to  know  that  Dr. 
Tylor  was  only  twenty-four  years  of  age  when  he  went  to  Mexico,  and 
that  he  lived  at  a  period  when  he  would  naturally  be  influenced  by  the 
man  who  was,  at  that  time,  considered  the  great  authority  on  Spanish- 
America  —  Prescott.  Since  Dr.  Tylor's  time  Mr.  Prescott's  history,  a 
great  part  of  it,  has  been  relegated  by  scientific  men  to  where  it  belongs, 
to  the  shelves  of  delightful  romance.  Mr.  Prescott  used  the  stories  of  the 
Spanish  conquerors  of  Mexico,  their  reports  back  to  the  court  of  Spain, 
for  all  they  were  worth.  As.  romances  they  were  worth  a  great  deal,  but 
as  facts  they  were  worth  very  little.  It  was  Cortez'  business  to  make  the 
Spanish  monarchs  believe  in  the  wonders  of  his  conquest ;  and  the  glowing 
imagination  of  some  of  the  people  with  him  helped  to  do  the  rest. 


Two  men  have  thrown  utter  discredit  upon  Prescott's  "  history  "  — 
A.  F.  Bandelier  and  Charles  F.  Lummis.  Bandelier  devoted  his  work  to 
the  Indians  of  our  own  Southwest,  Mexico  and  South  America.  Accord- 
ing to  the  Britannica,  Bandelier  made  himself  "  the  leading  authority  on 
the  history  of  Arizona  and  New  Mexico,"  and,  "  with  F.  H.  Cushing  and 
his  successors,  one  of  the  leading  authorities  on  prehistoric  civilization." 
"  Bandelier  has  shown  the  falsity  of  various  historical  myths,  notably  his 
conclusions  respecting  the  Inca  civilization  of  Peru."  Mr.  Bandelier,  in 
a  preface  to  Charles  F.  Lummis'  "  Spanish  Pioneers,"  stands  behind  every 
word  that  Lummis  writes,  and  Lummis  himself  has  utterly  destroyed  the 
romances  of  Prescott.  "  That  we  have  not  given  justice  to  the  Spanish 
pioneers,"  says  Mr.  Bandelier,  "  is  simply  because  we  have  been  misled. 
They  made  a  record  unparalleled,  but  our  text-books  have  not  recognized 
that  fact,  though  they  no  longer  dispute  it.  Now,  thanks  to  the  new  school 
of  American  history,  we  are  coming,  to  the  truth,  a  truth  which  every 
manly  American  will  be  glad  to  know.    I  can  only  say  that  the  estimates 


THE  BOOK  OF  RED  AND  YELLOW  79 

and  statements  embodied  in  this  volume  are  strictly  true ;  and  that  I  hold 
myself  ready  to  defend  them  from  the  standpoint  of  historical  science." 

The  whole  historic  section  of  Mr.  Lind's  article,  following  Dr.  Tylor's 
lead,  is  really  an  attempt  to  show  how  little  the  Spaniards  did  and  how 
much  of  a  better  civilization  they  destroyed. 

The  books  of  Mr.  Lummis  on  the  "  Spanish  Pioneers  "  and  on  "  The 
Awakening  of  a  Nation  "  (Mexico)  are  eye-openers  to  those  who  desire 
to  know  the  truth  regarding  the  old  civilization  and  the  new.  "  In  spite  of 
our  reasonable  hostility  to  the  Spanish  blood,"  he  says,  "  we  must  not  give 
our  eyes  the  lie."  "  To  such  as  find  the  testimony  of  Humboldt  ineffi- 
cient," says  Mr.  Lummis,  "  there  could  be  no  more  useful  reading  than 
the  laws  of  Spain  as  to  the  Aborigines  —  the  highest-minded,  most  com- 
plete and  most  noble  '  Indian  policy '  ever  framed  by  man."  As  an 
example  of  the  romance  in  the  statements  which  now  pass  as  history 
concerning  Mexico,  both  Lummis  and  Bandelier  proved,  from  fifteen  to 
twenty  years  ago,  that  the  famous  "  columns  of  porphyry  and  jasper 
supporting  marble  balconies,"  which  Dr.  Tylor  concedes  "  were  piers 
carrying  slabs,"  to  be  nothing  more  than  adobe  houses  like  the  houses 
used  by  our  own  Pueblo  Indians. 

But  even  Prescott  did  not  swallow  all  the  yarns  of  the  Spanish  con- 
querors ;  but  those  that  he  did  accept  have,  nine-tenths  of  them,  gone  to 
the  scrap  heap.  What  folly  it  is  at  its  best,  the  idea  that  a  people  could 
have  been  highly  civilized  who  resorted  to  frightful  human  sacrifices! 
Eighty  thousand  prisoners  of  war  were  sacrificed  by  Montezuma  at  the 
dedication  of  one  great  temple,  "  until  the  gutters  ran  red  with  blood." 

But  Mr.  Lind  thinks  that  "  the  Indian  empire  of  Montezuma,  which 
the  Spaniards  destroyed  four  hundred  years  ago,  was  in  many  respects 
as  far  advanced  as  some  of  the  European  states  at  that  period.  This,  of 
course,  is  based  on  Prescott,  who  thinks  that  "  the  degree  of  civilization 
which  they  have  reached,  as  inferred  from  their  political  institutions,  may 
be  considered,  perhaps,  not  much  short  of  that  enjoyed  by  our  Saxon 
ancestors  under  Alfred."  But  it  is  a  long  call  from  Alfred  to  the  days 
of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella. 

Dr.  Tylor  and  Mr.  Lind  vary  from  Prescott  when  they  make  what  the 
latter  calls  "  itinerant  traders,"  or,  in  our  parlance,  "  peddlers,"  "  a  rich 
and  powerful  merchant  class."  Mr.  Lind  is  evidently  unacquainted  with 
either  Lummis,  Bandelier,  Enoch  or  Hale.  Susan  Hale's  book  on  Mexico, 
though  biased,  yet  finds  a  place  in ."  The  Stories  of  Nations,"  published  by 
T.  Fisher  Unwyn  of  London.  The  author  knew  something  of  recent 
research.  She  concedes,  with  Bandelier  and  Lummis,  that  before  Cortez. 
Mexico  "  was  inhabited  by  intelligent  races  of  men."    But  she  also  says : 


80  THE  BOOK  OF  RED  AND  YELLOW 

"  Empires  and  palaces,  luxury  and  splendor,  fill  the  accounts  of  the 
Spaniards ;  and  imagination  loves  to  adorn  the  halls  of  the  Montezumas 
with  the  glories  of  an  oriental  tale.  Later  explorers,  with  the  fatal 
penetration  of  our  time,  destroy  the  splendid  vision,  reducing  the  emperor 
to  a  chieftain,  the  glittering  retinue  to  a  horde  of  savages,  the  magnificent 
civilization,  devoted  to  art,  literature  and  luxury,  reduced  to  a  few 
handfuls  of  pitiful  Indians,  quarreling  with  one  another  for  supremacy ; 
and  sighs  to  think  his  sympathies  may  have  been  wasted  on  the  sufferings 
of  an  Aztec  sovereign,  dethroned  by  the  invading  Spaniard." 

Susan  Hale's  only  offered  consolation  is  that  "  after  brushing  away 
the  sparkling  cobwebs  of  exaggerated  reports,  enough  fact  is  left  to  build 
up  a  respectable  case  for  the  early  races  of  Mexico,"  and  that  is  all  that 
can  be  done  to-day. 

The  truth  of  the  matter  is  that  Spanish  civilization  in  Mexico  was  to 
early  Aztec  civilization  as  light  was  to  darkness ;  and  all  that  Mexico 
possesses  to-day  of  civilization  she  received  absolutely  from  the  Spaniards. 
"  Our  partisan  histories,  even  our  Encyclopedias,"  says  Lummis,  "  are 
either  strangely  silent  or  strangely  biased.  They  do  not  seem  to  recog- 
nize the  precedence  of  Spain,  nor  the  fact  that  she  made  in  America  a 
record  of  heroism,  of  unparalleled  exploration  and  colonization,  never 
approached  by  any  other  nation  anywhere.  Long  before  the  Saxon  had 
raised  so  much  as  a  hut  in  the  new  world,  or  penetrated  a  hundred  miles 
horn  the  coast,  the  Spanish  pioneers  had  explored  America  from  Kansas 
to  Cape  Horn,  and  from  sea  to  sea ;  and  had  far  inland  a  chain  of 
Spanish  cities  five  thousand  miles  long." 

How  does  this  accord  with  the  "  bondage,  the  ignorance,  the  vice  and 
the  sloth  "  of  the  sixteenth  century,  according  to  Mr.  Lind?  As  to  the 
cruelty  of  Spanish  conquests,  Mr.  Lummis  says  that  "they  (the  Span- 
iards) were  far  less  cruel  than  the  Saxon  ones."  The  Spaniard  never 
exterminated.  He  conquered  the  Aborigine  and  then  converted  and  edu- 
cated him." 

I  have  before  me  a  book  by  Professor  Noll  of  the  University  of  the 
South,  biased,  of  course,  as  most  such  books  are.  But  the  professor  is 
forced  to  concede  this :  "  It  may  be  frankly  admitted  that  the  influence 
of  the  religious  Orders  was,  in  the  main,  beneficial  to  the  country 
throughout  the  sixteenth  century.  The  archbishops  and  bishops  of 
Mexico  exercised  great  influence  in  the  affairs  of  government.  They  were 
respected  by  the  civil  authorities  and  venerated  by  the  natives.  .  .  . 
The  Jesuits,  who  arrived  in  the  year  1572,  true  to  the  purposes  of  their 
Order,  tried  to  foster  learning  in  the  new  land,  though  with  but  limited 


THE  BOOK  OF  RED  AND  YELLOW  81 

success.  Other  religious  Orders  established  and  maintained  admirably 
appointed  hospitals  and  asylums  in  every  large  city." 

Enoch,  an  Englishman,  whose  prejudices  are  rather  fairly  distributed 
against  both  Mexico  and  the  United  States,  frankly  says:  "  The  Mexican 
of  to-day  owes  all  he  has  —  law,  literature,  art  and  social  system,  and 
refinements  of  law  and  religion  —  to  Spain." 

I  believe  that  any  honest  student  of  Mexican  history  can  not  but  come 
to  exactly  the  same  conclusion ;  but  it  is  not  according  to  Mr.  Lind's 
policy  to  say  anything  good  of  Spain.  She  must  remain  now  and  forever 
the  oppressor  of  Mexico,  the  excuse  for  revolution,  and  the  horrible 
example,  to  show  the  wisdom  of  the  Lind  advice. 

MR.    LIND'S    PERSONAL    VIEWS. 

The  reading  of  the  section  of  Mr.  Lind's  article  devoted  to  his  per- 
sonal opinions  is  interesting,  but  not  informing.  He  cites,  as  a  horrible 
example  of  the  oppression  of  the  peon,  that  "  the  minimum  fee  of  the 
Church  for  marriages,  baptisms  and  ceremonies  of  the  like  character  is 
ten  pesos.  No  peon  could  accumulate  or  have  so  much  wealth  at  one 
time.  If  he  is  ambitious  to  wed  his  wife  in  the  Church,  or  to  have  his 
first-born  baptized,  the  fee,  with  the  expense  of  the  fiesta,  makes  him  a 
debtor  for  life." 

This  can  not  apply  to  all  peons,  for,  later  on,  Mr.  Lind  says  that  the 
northern  peon  is  "  able  to  get  married  in  the  Church,  have  his  child  bap- 
tized, to  live  in  a  decent  house,  and  to  educate  his  children ;  and  he  does 
all  these  things." 

Now,  if  Mr.  Lind  had  taken  the  trouble  to  find  out  the  laws  of  the 
Church  and  the  customs  of  Mexico,  he  would  have  had  an  opportunity  to 
qualify  his  statements.  It  has,  for  example;  been  specifically  laid  down 
for  the  guidance  of  pastors  that  they  must  not  demand  a  fee  of  any  kind 
from  the  poor.  According  to  the  Church  law,  there  is  not  a  single  person 
in  all  of  Mexico  who  can  not  come  to  his  pastor  and,  if  he  is  poor,  have 
every  one  of  these  ceremonies  performed  without  any  offering  whatever. 
I,  personally,  know  one  pastor  in  Mexico  who  annually  has  had  four  hun- 
dred marriages  without  offerings  of  any  kind.  In  other  words,  the  same 
law  applies  in  Mexico  that  applies  in  the  United  States ;  and  the  same 
understanding  of  offerings,  in  connection  with  such  ceremonies,  applies 
in  Mexico  as  applies  in  the  Protestant  churches  of  the  United  States. 
There  is  not  a  Protestant  minister  that  I  know  of,  or  ever  heard  of,  but 
expects  a  fee  on  the  occasion  of  a  marriage,  and,  I  believe,  also  on  the 
occasion  of  a  funeral,  if  the  people  receiving  his  ministrations  are  able  to 
give  it.  How  grievously  the  officiating  clergyman  would  be  afflicted  if 
he  found  his  envelope  empty!  Why?  Because  his  fees  are  recognized  as 
part  of  his  living.     It  is  the  same  in  Mexico.     But  10  pesos  in  Mexico 


82  THE  BOOK  OF  RED  AND  YELLOW 

does  not  mean  $10  in  this  country.  At  present  it  means  $2,  and  at  the 
highest  rate  of  exchange  it  means  $5.  The  fiesta  is  the  father's  own 
business,  and  the  Church  has  nothing  to  do  with  it. 

Would  $5  put  the  average  Mexican  peon  in  debt  all  his  lifetime? 
Mr.  Lind  surely  does  not  think  the  American  public  is  so  credulous  as  to 
believe  that.  However,  that  abuses  have  occurred  is  very  probable ;  but 
when  they  did,  those  responsible  were  acting,  not  in  accord  with  the  law  of 
the  Church,  but  in  direct  contradiction  to  it. 

Then,  too,  Mr.  Lind  does  not  mention  the  fees  of  the  state.  To  save 
the  peon  from  "  bondage  "  to  the  priest,  the  state  decreed  civil  marriage. 
It  is  true  that  the  fee  is  only  about  50  cents  if  the  marriage  is  per- 
formed in  the  office  of  the  magistrate.  But  no  Mexican  peasant  wants 
that.  He  wants  the  marriage  at  his  house,  and  the  state  knows  this.  Then 
a  carriage  must  be  supplied  for  the  magistrate,  and  two  visits  made,  at  a 
cost  of  8  pesos  per  visit.  So  16  pesos  is  what  the  civil  officials  exact  for 
these  marriages,  which  formerly  the  peon,  by  simply  stating  his  poverty, 
could  have  had  performed  for  nothing. 

The  conditions  under  which  the  Church  is  supported  in  Mexico  have 
also  been  passed  over  by  Mr.  Lind.  There  is  no  law  that  compels  the 
peon  to  give  anything  to  the  support  of  religion.  In  some  places  the 
people  voluntarily  make  offerings  of  grain,  according  to  the  old  Spanish 
law,  which,  by  the  way,  is  also  an  old  French  law,  and  still  in  vogue  in 
parts  of  Canada.  But  in  the  greater  part  of  Mexico  the  priests  receive 
no  salary  and  no  offerings  of  any  kind,  except  the  voluntary  offerings  at 
marriages,  baptisms  and  funerals.  Mr.  Lind  would  suppress  all  this  in 
Mexico,  but  would  not  suppress  it  among  his  own  people  in  the  United 
States.  As  a  married  man,  he  presumably  has  made  such  offerings  him- 
self ;  but,  to  do  away  with  all  chance  of  the  Church  existing  at  all  in 
Mexico,  he  censures  such  a  practice  in  the  neighboring  republic. 

Mr.  Lind  thinks  that  the  Spaniards  came  to  gather  wealth  and  extend 
the  "  authority  and  fanaticism  of  Spain  " ;  and  they  did  it  so  well  that 
they  imposed  that  bondage  "  spiritually  and  politically."  He  concedes 
always  that  the  English  colonial  policy  was  harsh  and  selfish,  but  was  not 
as  bad  as  the  Spanish.  He  does  not  mention  a  great  difference,  which  is  that 
the  Spanish  bondage  preserved  the  people  and  the  English  bondage  anni- 
hilated them. 

But,  in  spite  of  all  this,  Mr.  Lind  has  found  great  good  in  the  Mexican 
people.  He  found  them,  for  example,  courteous  and  kind,  grateful, 
peaceful,  patriotic,  not  ignorant  though  illiterate,  progressive,  skilful,  not 
really  lazy,  with  a  charming  family  life,  artistic  and  hospitable.  It  would 
be  interesting  to  ask  where  they  got  these  good  traits.    Did  they  persevere 


THE  BOOK  OF  RED  AND  YELLOW  83 

throughout  the  entire  Spanish  regime,  or  have  they  sprung  up  sinee? 
Historians  tell  us  very  plainly  that  the  Spanish  regime  gave  it  to  them ; 
and,  when  you  come  to  think  it-  out,  it  was  not  such  a  bad  regime  that 
could  leave  such  marks  upon  a  conquered  people.  If  Spain  gave  the 
Mexicans  only  "  spiritual  bondage  and  fanaticism,"  the  "  spiritual  bondage 
and  fanaticism  "  produced  very  wonderful  results.  Would  it  not,  perhaps, 
be  good  for  us  if  we  had  some  spiritual  bondage  and  fanaticism  of  that 
kind  ? 

* 

Among  the  "  horrors  "  that  the  Spanish  regime  inflicted  upon  the 
Mexicans,  Mr.  Lind  mentions  the  Inquisition.  This  is  rather  strange,  for 
other  historians  tell  us  that  the  Inquisition  amounted  to  very  little  in 
Mexico.  Some  of  them  even  hint  that  it  was  a  method  used  by  the  gov- 
ernment of  keeping  order ;  and,  what  Mr.  Lind  does  not  seem  to  know, 
and  which  I  state  under  the  authority  of  Professor  Noll,  "  the  Indians 
were,  by  specific  command-,  exempted  from  its  operations." 

Of  course,  Mr.  Lind  makes  an  attempt  to  explain  some  of  the  virtues 
he  found  in  the  Mexicans.  For  example,  that  of  politeness.  He  charges 
it  to  the  tyranny  of  the  upper  classes,  for  class  distinction,  he  says,  always 
compels  at  least  outward  politeness.  Yet,  in  another  part  of  his  article,  he 
informs  us  that  he  can  not  "  recall  an  instance  among  the  thousands  of 
people  that  I  met  and  came  into  contact  with,  or  in  my  walks  about  the 
city  or  on  the  country  roads,  where  the  slightest  rudeness  or  disrespect 
was  shown."  Now,  class  distinctions  make  for  politeness  in  the  oppressed, 
but  not  in  the  tyrant ;  but  Mr.  Lind  found  the  politeness  in  everybody. 

It  is  much  to  be  wondered  at  where  Mr.  Lind  secured  the  following 
bit  of  information :  "  One  of  the  first  acts  of  the  Spanish  conqueror  was 
to  distribute  the  arable  lands  of  the  people  among  his  lieutenants  and  have 
churches  established."  The  reason  I  am  wondering  where  he  secured 
this  information  is  because  it  is  not  true.  The  Spaniards  distributed  the 
settled  lands  among  the  Indians,  retaining  for  themselves  the  mines  and 
unsettled  lands.  The  land  which  the  Church  afterward  acquired  was 
received  as  donations  and  bequests  from  individuals,  and  not  from  the 
State.  It  is  very  easy  for  Mr.  Lind  to  verify  this,  and,  in  doing  so,  will 
find  another  fly  in  his  peculiar  sort  of  ointment  —  where  he  says  "  a  whole 
nation  was  made  homeless."  Natives  at  any  time  could  take  up  land  in 
Mexico,  and  can  do  so  to  this  day.  If  Mr.  Lind  will  take  the  trouble  to 
consult  Enoch's  book  on  Mexico,  published  by  T.  Fisher  Unwyn  of 
London,  he  will  find,  on  page  157,  the  following:  "  National  lands  have 
been  set  aside  in  vast  areas;  and  any  inhabitant  of  the  republic  may 
'  denounce  '  or  acquire  a  piece  of  such  land,  and  retain  it  by  paying  an 
annual  tax  payment,  the  prices  varying  from  2  pesos,  in  the  remote 
regions,  to  20  or  30  pesos  per  hectare,  equal  to  two  and  one-half  acres,  in 


84  THE  BOOK  OF  RED  AND  YELLOW 

the  more  settled  states."     In  some  cases  this  law  may  have  been  found 
worthless,  but  it  is  the  law. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  Mr.  Lind,  in  speaking  of  Morelos,  speaks  to  his 
own  discomfiture.  He  says  that  there  all  the  land  is  owned  by  twenty- 
seven  men.  Well,  at  one  time  all  of  this  land  was  parceled  out  to  the 
people,  who  proceeded  to  sell  it  to  the  twenty-seven  (if  that  is  the  correct 
number  of  proprietors) ,  and,  having  sold  it  and  received  the  money,  now 
they  want  it  again.  The  question  is,  will  the  people  remain  proprietors 
when  the  land  is  given  to  them?  I  have  heard  prominent  and  influential 
Mexicans  say  that,  if  the  land  is  again  parceled  out,  there  should  be  a  law 
passed  at  the  same  time  forbidding  the  peon  to  sell. 

Here  is  another  statement  that  manifests  either  ignorance  or  a  desire 
to  slander.  Speaking  of  the  peon's  wages,  Mr.  Lind  says :  "  They  are 
paid  twenty-five  centavos  per  day,  and  given  a  small  measure  (about  a 
pint)  of  corn.  They  are  permitted  to  keep  a  few  chickens,  and  occasionally 
a  goat  or  two ;  but  if  they  show  the  least  inclination  to  increase  their  pos- 
sessions, their  ambition  is  promptly  curbed."  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  peon 
is  given  his  house,  enough  land  for  himself  to  raise  his  garden  truck, 
twenty-five  centavos  in  money,  and  three  litres  of  corn  and  a  half  litre  of 
beans.  He  is  not  only  permitted  to  keep  a  few  chickens,  but  as  many  as  he 
wishes ;  and  also  a  pig.  He  also  receives  wood.  Besides  this,  entirely 
away  from  his  garden,  he  has  another  small  piece  of  land,  which  is  for 
his  use ;  and  he  may  raise,  as  he  does,  corn  or  anything  else  on  it.  It  must 
be  remembered,  too,  that  the  three  litres  of  corn  and  a  half  litre  of  beans, 
together  with  the  land  he  has  and  the  wood,  he  may  use  as  he  pleases ;  and 
that  all  his  chickens  and  pigs  live  on  the  hacienda.  Of  course,  conditions 
are  not  alike  all  over  Mexico,  nor  can  any  one  exactly  define  what  a  "  peon 
is ;  but  since  Mr.  Lind  offers  his  statement  to  cover  a  general  condition,  he 
might  as  well  be  truthful. 

"  The  law  of  Mexico,"  Mr.  Lind  says,  "  makes  it  a  crime  for  a  person 
in  the  employ  of  another  to  leave  service  while  in  debt  to  the  employer. 
Consequently,  the  great  land  owners  take  care  that  all  their  peons  are  in 
debt."  What  are  the  facts  about  this?  They  are  that  the  peon  will  not 
enter  service  without  an  advanced  payment,  which  is  called  the  "  acomodo," 
which  amounts  to  from  fifteen  to  twenty  dollars.  The  land  owner  is  not 
at  all  anxious  to  give  this,  but  the  peon  insists  upon  it.  That  binds  him  to 
work  for  a  certain  length  of  time,  but  as  a  matter  of  fact,  he  works  as  long 
as  he  likes  and  then  he  moves.  Very  seldom  is  the  "  acomodo  "  returned 
to  the  land  owner. 

Mr.  Lind  seems  to  have  very  great  affection  for  the  Mexican  of  the 
North,  and  he  correspondingly  despises  those  of  the  South.    To  him  the 


THE  BOOK  OF  RED  AND  YELLOW  85 

northern  Mexican  is  the  progressive  Mexican,  and  the  southern  is  the 
one  sunk  in  ignorance  and  despair.  The  northern  Mexican  earns  three 
to  four  pesos  a  day  in  the  Texas  cotton-fields,  on  the  American  railroads 
and  in  the  mines,  so  "  he  has  learned  to  read  his  own  language,  and  in 
most  cases,  has  picked  up  a  little  English,"  says  Mr.  Lind. 

This  statement  is  just  as  untrue  as  the  others.  The  greatest  destitution 
among  the  Mexicans  is  in  the  North.  The  loosest  morality  among  Mexi-. 
cans  is  in  the  North.  Proof  of  this  Mr.  Lind  can  have  by  studying  the 
Mexicans  in  Texas,  Arizona  and  New  Mexico,  who  are  all  from  the  North. 
The  most  progressive  Mexican  is  in  the  South.  The  State  of  Oaxaca  has 
produced  Juarez,  Diaz,  Pineda,  Cervantes,  and  almost  all  the  governmen- 
tal brains  during  the  twenty  years  of  Porfirio  Diaz.  The  Oaxaca  Indians 
desire  education  more  than  any  Indian  in  the  North.  The  South  is  the 
garden  spot  of  Mexico.  I  wonder  if  Mr.  Lind  ever  turned  his  enigmatic 
face  to  the  South.  It  is  true  the  Indians  in  the  North  have  had  a  better 
chance  —  an  opportunity  to  secure  better  pay,  since  there  is  more  mining 
and  manufacturing  and  railroading  in  the  North ;  there  is  also  better 
land.  But,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  South  is  in  a  much  happier  condition, 
and  much  less  prone  to  revolutionary  troubles.  No  American,  who  has 
read  reports  from  Mexico,  but  knows  that  the  North  is  the  center  of 
revolution,  and  that  the  South  usually  has  to  be  stirred  up  to  join  in  the 
blood-letting.  A  single  exception  might  possibly  be  the  State  of  Morelos ; 
but  it  is  remarkable,  too,  as  I  stated  in  previous  pages,  that  the  revolution 
in  Morelos,  under  Zapata,  showed  few  of  the  anti-religious  atrocities  that 
accompanied  the  revolution  in  the  North. 

Mr.  Lind  certainly  is  optimistic  when  he  states  that  the  northern  Indian 
has  learned  "  to  read  his  own  language,  and  in  most  cases,  has  picked  up  a 
little  English."  The  truth  is  that  the  northern  Indian  does  not  want  to  get 
an  education ;  and  that  the  southern  Indian  does.  I  would  ask  the  reader 
to  remember,  in  this  connection,  what  I  said  about  Oaxaca.  I  am  not 
speaking  on  my  own  responsibility.  I  have  secured  my  information  from 
a  gentleman  who  was  born  in  Oaxaca,  and  who  lives  in  the  North,  and 
who  was  engaged  in  social  work  in  one  of  the  large  cities,  but  who  has  had 
experience  in  North,  South  and  center.  I  shall  be  very  glad,  indeed, 
if  Mr.  Lind  is  interested,  to  give  my  informant's  name.  He  is  a  Mexican 
with  a  European  education,  and  has  been  a  professor  in  his  own  country. 

Another  queer  statement  of  Mr.  Lind  is  that  which  concerns  the  opera- 
tion of  the  national  railroads.  He  says  they  were  wholly  operated  by 
Americans,  but  that  to-day  the  entire  system,  from  division  superinten- 
dents to  trackmen,  is  in  the  hands  of  peons,  who,  a  generation  ago,  had  not 
heard  steam  puff.    "  They  do  the  engineering,  superintend  and  manage  the 


86  THE  BOOK  OF  RED  AND  YELLOW 

shops,  construct  cars,  coaches  and  locomotives  that  would  do  credit  to 
any  shop  on  this  side  of  the  line." 

It  is  true,  as  Mr.  Lind  says,  that  "  they  are  not  all  of  the  peon  class." 
Neither  the  engineers,  nor  the  conductors,  nor  the  division  superintendents, 
nor  any  one  else  except  the  laborers,  are  of  the  peon  class.  The  fact  is 
that  Carranza's  experiment  was  a  failure,  and  that  these  positions  are  now 
open  to  the  Americans,  whenever  they  can  get  them  to  come  {vide 
the  daily  papers,  which  reported  about  a  month  ago  that  the  change  had 
been  made).  The  fact  is  that  even  when  the  Mexicans  did  run  the  rail- 
roads, it  was  the  middle  class  and  not  the  peon  class  that  did  the  operating. 
Mr.  Lind  fails  constantly  to  distinguish  between  the  two  classes. 


In  the  course  of  his  article,  the  ex-Governor  informs  us  that  a  Papal 
bull  forbade  any  instruction  in  Mexico  for  two  hundred  years,  except 
instruction  in  religion  and  politeness.  Now,  Mr.  Lind  will  concede  that 
the  Catholic  Church  is  rather  a  compact  organization,  and  that  Papal  bulls 
are  usually  obeyed  by  the  clergy.  Will  he  kindly  explain  how  it  was  pos- 
sible, then,  to  found  the  numberless  colleges,  universities  and  schools,  espe- 
cially for  the  Indians,  which  were  established  in  Mexico  by  the  Spaniards. 
What  Pope  issued  that  bull?  What  is  the  date  of  it?  Surely,  Mr.  Lind 
knows,  and,  if  he  does,  he  knows  more  than  any  authority  on  Mexico,  or 
any  historian  of  the  Church  I  have  ever  met. 


But  the  pinnacle  of  loose  statements  is  reached  in  the  following :  "  The 
discipline  and  restraint  shown  by  the  victorious  Constitutionalist  armies 
and  their  chiefs  were  most  creditable  and  encouraging."  I  am  glad  to 
know  what  encourages  Mr.  Lind.  He  is  so  quiet-appearing  a  man,  so  min- 
isterial-looking, so  mild  in  manner  and  so  silent,  that  I  thought  he  would 
be  encouraged  by  the  sound  of  the  sickle  in  the  wheat  or  the  hum  of 
industry  in  the  factory,  or  the  scratching  of  a  pen  over  paper,  rather  than 
by  the  sound  of  knives  cutting  throats,  guns  shooting  the  innocent,  and 
the  thunderous  appeals  to  hatred  that  came  from  these  victorious  armies 
and  their  chiefs.  Does  Mr.  Lind  think  the  American  people  are  fools? 
They  know  what  has  happened  in  Mexico.  They  know  what  the  "  vic- 
torious chiefs  "  have  done.  They  know  of  the  outrages  and  murders  . 
committed.  They  know  that  nothing  short  of  the  Reign  of  Terror  in 
France  has  equaled,  for  "  discipline  and  restraint,"  the  awful  work  of  his 
friends  in  Mexico.  This  statement  from  a  man  who  represented  the 
United  States,  or  rather  the  President  of  the  United  States,  and  must  have 
known  everything  that  went  on  in  Mexico,  is  one  of  the  most  horrible 


THE  BOOK  OF  RED  AND   YELLOW  87 

and  blasphemous  utterances  that  I  have  ever  read.    It  takes  the  measure 
at  once  of  John  Lind. 

Of  what  use  is  it  to  go  on  further,  picking  out  the  things  in  his  article 
which  stamp  him  as  not  only  incompetent,  but  absolutely  ignorant,  after 
every  chance  to  enlighten  himself.'  If  these  are  the  things  he  told  the 
President  of  the  United  States,  my  contention  in  previous  pages,  that  the 
President  was  deceived,  proves  to  be  true.  The  President  must  have 
trusted  Mr.  Lind.  Who  would  not  trust  so  wise-looking  a  man?  But 
he  trusted  him  to  his  own  great  injury.  Mr.  Lind  was  the  President's, 
eyes  and  ears  in  Mexico,  but  the  eyes  saw  things  that  never  were,  and 
the  ears  heard  things  that  are  a  tissue  of  falsehoods  from  beginning  to 
end.  No  wonder  we  are  in  trouble  over  our  Mexican  policy !  No  wonder 
that  it  stands  as  the  one  great  failure  and  blot  upon  a  government  that 
meant  well,  and  that  intended  to  do  things  for  Mexico's  good.  No  wonder 
that  it  has  raised  an  angry  protest  among  sixteen  million  people  in  this 
country,  and  is  daily  bringing  to  their  aid  the  enlightened  among  their 
fellow  citizens.  If  this  is  what  Mr.  Lind  learned,  he  had  better  go  to 
school  again.  We  did  not  need  to  send  any  one  to  Mexico  to  get  false- 
hoods. We  had  access  to  the  Encyclopedia  Rritannica  for  the  history  of 
Mexico,  and  we  could  have  copied  our  impressions  out  of  it  just  as  Mr. 
Lind  did.  And  as  for  the  things  that  he  reports  of  his  personal  knowl- 
edge, we  have  enough  lie  factories  in  the  United  States  without  paying 
John  Lind  to  go  to  Mexico  at  the  expense  of  the  taxpayers  and  manufac- 
ture more  lies. 

A    THIRD   PART. 

An  extra  natural  division  of  Mr.  Lind's  article  is  his  defense  of  the 
policy  of  President  Wilson  toward  Mexico.  I  am  not  concerned  in  attack- 
ing President  Wilson's  policy.  I  have  tried  only  to  give  the  facts  and  let 
people  judge  for  themselves.  Moreover,  I  am  in  entire  sympathy  with  the 
President's  desire  to  avoid  armed  intervention  in  Mexico.  I  can  go  a  step 
farther.  I  have  frequently  met  and  consulted  with  the  archbishops 
and  bishops  of  Mexico,  and  I  know  I  speak  their  minds  when  I  say 
that  they  do  not  want  such  intervention.  They  are  patriotic  Mexicans 
who  fear  for  the  independence  of  their  beloved  country,  who  dread 
the  shedding  of  their  countrymen's  blood,  and  who  prefer  to  suffer  even 
death  rather  than  see  the  foot  of  an  invader  step  in  enmity  upon  the  soil 
of  Mexico.  So  while  as  an  American  I  do  not  want  our  own  country 
plunged  into  a  war,  as  the  representative  of  members  of  the  Mexican 
hierarchy  I  do  not  want  it  for  Mexico's  sake.  What  the.  Mexican  bishops 
want  is  religious  liberty.  What  American  Catholics  want  is  the  promise- 
that  a  government  which  already  has  intervened  in  Mexican  affairs- to  the 


88  THE  BOOK  OF  RED  AND  YELLOW 

extent  of  telling  the  Mexican  people  what  they  should  not  do,  will  inform 
one  and  all  of  the  factions  that  the  thing  they  must  do,  if  they  want  recog-, 
nition  by  this  nation,  is  to  guarantee  a  true  democracy  to  Mexico,  by  giv- 
ing its  people  what  they  have  not  had  for  fifty  years  —  liberty  of  conscience. 
The  President  can  do  that.  He  ought  to  do  it.  He  can  do  no  less. 
We'll  forget  what  is  past,  but  the  future,  we  are  determined,  shall  not  be 
marked  by  the  John  Lindisms  of  the  past,  by  which  I  mean  —  the  unpar- 
donable blunders  of  narrow-mindedness  and  prejudice. 

WHAT    IS    WRONG    WITH    MEXICO? 

Without  egotism  I  think  I  can  answer  that  question.  Every  one  who 
knows  Mexican  history  and  something  of  the  condition  of  Mexico  to-day, 
can  answer  it. 

Here  is  the  answer:  What  is  our  President's  endeavor  in  his  Mexican 
policy?  To  his  honor  and  credit,  let  it  be  said  that  he  is  aiming  at  giving 
Mexico  a  lasting  solution  for  her  difficulties  in  the  shape  of  a  pure  democ- 
racy. But  no  democracy  can  be  built  upon  the  foundation-stone  of  tyranny. 
If  the  President' wishes  to  solve  the  Mexican  problem,  he  must  begin  at 
the  foundation ;  for  all  semblance  of  law  has  vanished  from  that  country. 
In  the  United  States  we  believe  that  a  foundation  which  does  not  guaran- 
tee rights  of  conscience  is  a  wrong  foundation.  Our  fathers  who  founded 
the  republic  were  a  unit  on  that  point.  They  knew  that  no  State  can  long 
survive  as  a  tyranny. 

I  think  it  is  the  general  belief  of  the  people  of  the  United  States  that 
President  Wilson  intends  to  recognize  no  government  in  Mexico  that  he 
does  not  believe  will  give  a  lasting  peace  to  the  country.  If  he  does  not 
secure  a  pure  democrary  for  Mexico  now,  whatever  government  he  recog- 
nizes must  be  one  in  which  he  has  confidence  that  it  will  at  least  prepare 
the  people  for  it.  If  his  policy  aims  at  makeshifts,  we  are  very  much  mis- 
taken about  it. 

In  order  to  get  at  the  crux  of  the  difficulty,  it  is  necessary  to  know  that 
since  1810  Mexico  has  been  at  war,  civil  or  foreign,  with  but  an  interval 
of  peace.  In  the  final  defeat  of  the  Spaniards  with  Iturbide,  in  1821,  the 
last  real  stable  government  left  Mexico.  Since  that  time,  one  revolution 
has  followed  another.  The  dictatorship  of  Porfirio  Diaz  was  the  era  of 
peace.    But  dissatisfaction  was  always  there.    Why? 

If  Mr.  Lind  will  take  a  glance  at  the  two  great  political  parties  of  Mex- 
ico, and  the  two  great  political  parties  of  the  United  States,  he  will  see 
where  the  difficulty  lies,  always  remembering  that  Mexican  democracy  is 
a  conceded  failure,  while  that  of  the  United  States  is  a  conceded  success. 

During  the  progress  of  the  war  between  Mexico  and  the  United  States, 
the  first  active  attempt  at  anti-clericalism  was  made  in  Mexico.     This 


THE  BOOK  OF  RED  AND  YELLOW  89 

attempt  took  the  form  of  robbing  the  Church.  I  do  not  defend  the  condi- 
tion which  made  the  Church  something  worth  robbing.  Personally,  I 
think  the  Church  is  better  off  with  little  property,  outside  its  religious 
houses,  and  its  houses  for  charity  and  education,  than  it  possibly  could  be 
with  great  wealth.    But  about  robbery,  there  can  be  only  one  opinion. 

The  wrong  method  was  taken  with  the  Church.  Catholics  resented  it ; 
and  out  of  their  resentment  on  one  side,  and  the  desire  for  spoliation  on 
the  other,  arose  the  two  great  political  parties  of  Mexico — -the  Clerical 
and  the  Liberal.  The  first  was  defensive  and  the  other  offensive.  The 
Clerical  party  feared  spoliation  less  than  the  inevitable  result  confessed 
by  the  Liberals  as  their  goal  —  the  restriction  of  religious  liberty.  The 
events  of  the  last  year  permit  us  to  verify  earlier  impressions  as  to  what 
the  Liberals  really  aimed  at.  Economic  and  agrarian  questions  were  only 
side  issues.  The  great  issue  of  Mexican  politics  was  that  of  liberty  of  con- 
science. Little  was  said  about  it,  for  the  Church  could  say  little.  She  did 
not  want  to  enter  politics.  But  it  is  easy  to  understand  other  tyrannies 
with  this  basic  injustice  in  the  laws. 

The  Mexican  people  have  never  been  permitted  to  vote  on  the  question 
of  religious  liberty.  It  was  never  clearly  put  up  to  the  suffrage  of  the 
nation.  Every  revolution  was  an  appeal  to  arms,  and  not  until  Madero 
came  was  there  even  a  partial  attempt  to  find  out  the  will  of  the  people. 
Madero  proclaimed  a  free  election.  The  Clerical  party  was  organized 
with  his  encouragement,  although  he  was  not  a  member  of  it.  The  result 
of  the  election,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  Liberals  did  the  counting  of 
the  votes,  was  really  a  verdict  for  religious  liberty.  Then  revolution  broke 
out  again.  Since  in  a  fair  battle  of  ballots,  religious  liberty  would-  have 
won,  the  ballots  were  replaced  by  bullets,  and  the  great  question  still 
remains  open,  and  still  has  in  it  the  certainty  of  future  trouble. 


When  our  own  nation  was  born,  its  founders  settled  the  question  of 
religious  liberty  by  constitutional  enactment.  They  guaranteed  liberty  of 
conscience;  and,  as  a  consequence,  it  was  taken  out  of  politics,  and  every 
later  attempt  to  make  it  a  part  of  a  political  struggle  was  frowned  down 
upon  and  defeated  by  the  American  people.  The  parties  that  fostered  such 
attempts  lie  wrecked  and  ruined  along  the  highway  of  American  progress. 
As  a  consequence,  our  political  divisions. concern  themselves  about  political 
and  industrial  questions.  They  all  aim  at  the  material  upbuilding  of  the 
nation.  The  foundation-stone  of  our  democracy,  in  the  main,  is  justice: 
so  we  have  prospered,  and  we  live  at  peace  with  our  neighbors. 

It  is  easy,,  then,  to  see  the  radical  difference  between  the  Mexican 
political  situation  and  our  own ;   and  it  is  easy  to  note  the  consequence 


90  THE  BOOK  OF  RED  AND  YELLOW 

of  each,  to  put  a  finger  on  the  canker  that  is  eating  the  heart  out  of 
Mexico,  and  to  know  what  lies  at  the  root  of  its  political  misfortunes. 
Mexico  has  a  political  issue  upon  which  there  can  be  no  compromise  on  the 
part  of  the  majority  of  its  people.  No  one  can  compromise  on  the  ques- 
tion of  his  natural  rights.  One  may  be  defeated  for  the  time  being,  but 
never  conquered.  The  question  of  religious  liberty  is  too  big  for  politics. 
It  transcends  all  other  questions  —  overshadows  them,  buries  them. 
When  men  are  sincere  there  can  be  no  other  thought  on  the  matter.  In 
Mexico  the  religious  issue  is  persistent.  Fair  play  can  not  be  secured  by 
arms.  The  "  Liberals  "  will  not  yield  until  the  Church  is  destroyed. 
They  refuse  to  grant  others  the  rights  which  they  demand  for  them- 
selves ;  so  all  questions  which  regard  the  material  welfare  of  the  nation 
are  sidetracked.     Mexico  still  suffers  as  she  has  suffered  for  fifty  years. 

How  can  the  Catholics  of  Mexico  yield?  They  are  not  asking  for 
rights  which  they  refuse  to  grant  to  their  neighbors.  Are  they  wrong  in 
their  uncompromising  attitude?  They  have  already  yielded  in  every 
non-essential.  They  do  not  ask  the  return  of  their  old  confiscated  prop- 
erty. They  do  not  ask  a  reunion  of  Church  and  State.  They  do  not  ask 
for  special  privileges.  They  simply  ask  for  the  essentials  —  recognition 
of  their  Church's  right  to  exist,  to  preach,  to  teach,  to  administer  the 
Sacraments,  and  to  hold  such  property  as  is  necessary  for  the  endowment 
of  her  charities  and  her  educational  establishments.  With  her  it  is  a 
fight  for  life,  for  liberty  to  perform  her  duties.  She  can  not  accept  laws 
aimed  at  these  rights,  at  the  sanctity  of  her  priesthood  and  at  her  freedom 
to  do  acts  of  charity.  Immortal  souls  are  at  stake.  There  is  and  there 
can  be  no  further  compromise  under  such  conditions. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  is  no  reason  why  the  Church  should  be  asked 
to  compromise.  What  she  demands  is  only  what  our  President  himself, 
with  his  high  ideals,  would  say  that  a  pure  democracy  gives  her  a  natural 
right  to  demand.  She  has  the  right  to  exist.  She  has  the  right  to  min- 
ister, and  the  right  to  have  and  to  hold  what  individual '  free  men  have 
consecrated  to  her  service. 

For  fifty  years,  upheld  by  sword  and  gun,  the  minority  of  Mexico 
lias  denied  the  majority  its  freedom  of  worship ;  has  interfered  with  the 
religious  liberty  of  individuals ;  has  coined  their  meekness  into  gold. 
They  have  been  doing  this  in  the  name  of  "  democracy  " ;  so  for  fifty 
years  there  has  been  no  peace  in  JVIexico.  Education  has  been  neglected. 
Agrarian  and  economic  sicknesses  have  cried  out  in  vain  for  treatment. 
Treasuries  of  successive  governments  have  been  looted.  Theft  has  been 
bold  and  open ;  and  now  comes  murder,  more  robbery,  lust  and  sacrilege. 
Why?  Because  fundamentally  the  whole  fabric  of  Mexican  democracy 
is  wrong.     It  was  built  on  tyranny  of  the  worst,  kind  —  tyranny  over 


THE  BOOK  OF  RED  AND   YELLOW  91 

men's  consciences.  The  foundation-stone  is  oppression  of  the  people  in 
the  enjoyment  of  natural  rights.  You  can  not  tinker  with  such  a  struc- 
ture. You  can  not  improve  it  so  that  it  will  last,  unless  that  false  base  is 
pulled  out  and  replaced  by  justice  full  and  free,  by  acknowledging  the 
right  of  the  individual  to  worship  God  as  his  conscience  tells  him  to 
worship  Him. 

That  is  the  crux  of  the  Mexican  difficulty.  Here  is  the  thing  that 
needs  to  be  changed.  If  the  United  States  is  to  help  Mexico  to  peace  and 
prosperity,  the  only  means  the  United  States  has  is  to  point  out  the  funda- 
mental defect ;  and  to  insist,  now  that  we  have  intervened  in  Mexican 
affairs,  that  the  cause  for  future  intervention,  because  of  the  certainty  of 
future  strife  in  Mexico,  must  be  permanently  removed.  When  the 
Catholics  of  the  United  States  ask  our  Government  to  refuse  recognition 
to  any  Mexican  government  which  denies  these  basic  repairs  to  the 
Mexican  governmental  structure,  the  Catholics  of  the  United  States  are, 
at  the  same  time,  putting  into  the  President's  hands  the  power  to  insist 
upon  something  which  will  make  his  name  a  future  benediction  in  Mexico  : 
and  which  will  make  the  American  name  honored  and  loved  instead  of 
hated  and  despised,  as  it  is  now.  Every  one  in  Mexico  thinks  that  we 
have  stirred  up  religious  strife.  The  Constitutionalists  have  killed  because 
they  believed  the  shedding  of  the  blood  of  priests  and  nuns  would  be 
approved  in  the  United  States.  They  do  not  stop  to  consider  that  Ameri- 
cans can  not  approve  for  Mexico  what  they  hate  in  their  own  country. 

But  is  the  Church  responsible,  at  least  partially,  by  holding  possessions 
which  stirred  up  the  cupidity  of  men  ?  Even  if  it  were  true,  that  would 
be  no  extenuation  of  robbery.  That  the  victim  is  rich  does  not  excuse 
the  thief ;  for  the  crime  does  not  lie  with  the  robbed,  but  with  the  robber. 
Circumstances  may  influence  the  degree  of  guilt,  but  not  the  fact  of  the 
crime.  Did  the  Church  receive  her  goods  unlawfully?  No  one  claims 
that  she  did.  The  full  indictment  is  that  she  possessed  them.  Is  that" 
sufficient  reason  for  spoliation?  If  it  is,  why  do  we  not  enter  into  a  career- 
of  spoliation  ourselves?  Why  not  rob,  as  I  already  pointed  out,  the 
endowments  of  Harvard,  Yale,  Princeton,  Chicago,  Creighton,  St.  Louis, 
Cornell,  Johns  Hopkins,  and  the  other  universities  of  this  country  which 
are  endowed?  Their  combined  endowments  must  certainly  represent 
more  than  all  the  wealth  that  was  ever  held  for  the  combined  religious, 
charitable  and  educational  works  of  the  Church  of  Mexico.  Why  not  rob 
Mr.  Rockefeller,  who  individually  has  more  money  than  a  biased  writer 
on  Mexico,  Professor  Noll,  charges  that  the  whole  Catholic  Church  pos- 
sessed? But  let  that  point  go.  It  is  fifty  years  since  the  Church  in 
Mexico  has  had  property.  For  the  last  fifty  years  she  practically  has  had 
none.  The  Laws  of  Reform  robbed  her.  She  can  not  hold  property 
except  in  the  name  of  individuals,  who  may  turn  around  and  take  it  from 


92  THE  BOOK  OF  RED  AND   YELLOW 

her.  When  the  Constitutionalists  charged,  as  an  excuse  for  their  crimes, 
that  the  Church  had  given  $20,000,000  to  Huerta,  they  charged  that  the 
Church  had  given  far  more  money  than  the  combined  efforts  of  all  her 
bishops  could  have  raised  in  ten  years.  What  wealth  she  had,  at  any  time, 
came  through  the  self-sacrifice  and  labor  of  thousands  of  her  religious 
men  and  women,  who  took  for  their  part  poverty,  in  order  that  religion 
might  have  the  means  to  teach  and  minister.  Recall  to  mind  the  stories 
told  of  the  fabulous  wealth  of  the  Church  in  the  Philippine  Islands ;  yet 
when  the  friar  lands  were  purchased  by  the  United  States,  they  were 
found  to  be  worth  only  $7,000,000.  That  $7,000,000  represented  the 
savings  of  ten  thousand  missionaries,  who  had  nothing  for  themselves 
but  their  food  and  clothes,  and  who  died  penniless  through  a  period  of 
three  hundred  years.  Recently  France  confiscated  the  "  millions  "  of  the 
Church.  When  the  spoil  was  counted  up,  the  government  had  only 
$2,000,000. 

Yes,  it  may  be  urged,  but  the  Church  has  spent  much  money  to  decorate 
her  shrines.  She  has  silver  and  gold  and  precious  stones.  That  is  very 
true,  but  she  can  not  use  such  wealth.  The  silver  and  gold  and  the 
precious  stones  are  the  free  offerings  of  the  people,  who  look  upon  them 
as  the  possessions  of  their  own  particular  towns  or  villages,  and  jealously 
guard  them.  For  example,  in  Oaxaca  there  is  a  shrine  rich  in  pearls. 
Every  pearl  came  from  a  pearl  fisherman ;  and  these  very  fishermen 
themselves  to-day  have  hidden  them  away,  in  fear  of  the  spoliation  of 
their  own  gifts.  What  help  is  it  to  the  Church  of  Mexico,  in  a  financial 
way,  that  the  shrines  have  been  enriched  by  the  people?  Why  charge  the 
Church  with  having  abundant  wealth  when  she  has  no  more  power  to 
touch  it  than  the  State  has  —  even  less  ?  Some  time  ago  an  American 
millionaire  said  to  me :  "  Why  does  not  the  Church  in  Milan  sell  the 
silver,  gold  and  precious  stones  around  the  tomb  of  St.  Charles  and  use 
'the  money  for  missionary  and  educational  purposes?"  I  recalled  to  his 
remembrance  the  uniformed  government  officers  standing  all  around  the 
wonderful  cathedral  —  government  guards  over  wealth  that  is  looked 
upon  as  the  property  of  the  nation,  not  of  the  Church.  Thoughtless 
people  affect  to  be  scandalized  at  the  riches  of  the  Church,  but  in  reality 
the  Church  owns  none  of  these  things.  A  few  years  ago  it  was  suggested 
that  the  Pope  present  a  work  of  art  from  the  Vatican  galleries  to  an 
Emperor.  In  the  Italian  Chamber  of  Deputies  the  Prime  Minister,  Crispi, 
arose  and  stated  that  the  Pope  could  do  no  such  thing;  that  the  Church 
was  only  the  guardian  of  these  works  of  art ;  that  they  really  belonged  to 
the  nation,  and  that  the  nation  would  take  them  when  she  desired  a  new 
guardian. 


THE  BOOK  OF  RED  AND  YELLOW  93 

For  fifty  years  the  Church  in  Mexico  has  been  poor,  living  on  the  offer- 
ings of  her  people,  just  as  the  different  Protestant  churches  in  America 
live  on  the  offerings  they  receive.  Now  she  is  told  by  the  Constitutionalists 
that  she  can  not  longer  accept  even  these  little  offerings.  They  proclaim 
that  she  must  no  longer  teach  or  preach,  dry  the  tear  of  sorrow,  bind  up 
the  wounds  of  suffering,  protect  her  orphans,  or  sooth  the  pillow  of  the 
sick.  The  men  who  say  this  ask  our  nation  to  uphold  them  in  their  tyranny, 
ask  us  to  put  the  stamp  of  our  approval  on  what  we  know  to  be  a  crime 
against  democracy  —  and  John  Lind  helps  them. 

We  can  have  permanent  peace  in  Mexico,  but  we  can  not  have  it  on  the 
basis  outlined  by  Mr.  Lind.  We  can  have  it  only  on  the  basis  that  every 
thoughtful  American  knows  is  the  one  and  only  and  just  basis.  The 
religious  issue  must  be  taken  out  of  politics ;  and  then  politics  will  be 
allowed  to  work  for  the  industrial  upbuilding  of  the  country.  I  don't  care 
who  governs  Mexico ;  the  Catholics  of  the  United  States  don't  care ;  but 
what  we  do  care  about  is  hoiv,  whoever  governs,  will  act  in  this  matter  of 
keeping  fifteen  million  unarmed  people  from  their  religious  and  natural 
rights  at  the  behest  of  a  quarter  of  a  million  bandits,  with  guns  supplied 
by  English  and  American  commercial  interests,  having  no  thought  of  any 
man's  rights  "  so  long  as  they  can  fill  their  dirty  pockets." 

The  persecutors  may  buy  the  silence  or  encouragement  of  every  paper 
in  the  United  States  as  they  have  already  bought  plenty  of  them ;  they  may 
pull  the  wool  over  the  eyes  of  a  dozen  editors  of  religious  weeklies,  as 
they  have  already  done  with  some ;  they  may  land  on  every  wire  that  con- 
nects with  a  secret  lodge,  and  drag  thousands  unknowingly  into  the  evil ; 
they  may  spend  millions  to  "  reach  "  the  officials  at  Washington  and  keep 
them  fed  on  lies  ;  they  may  play  on  the  political  "  loyalty  "  of  every  office- 
seeker  or  officeholder  in  the  nation;  they  may  slander  through  the  pens 
of  a  thousand  Linds  and  abuse  through  the  mouths  of  a  million  Hales  and 
Sillimans ;  but  —  they  shall  not  with  the  silence  of  sixteen  million  Catholic 
Americans  fasten  anew  on  a  devoted  people  the  shackles  of  religious 
persecution. 


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